


Where Flowers Bloom

by DinasEmrys



Series: Colorful Romance: RWBY Love Stories [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Accidental kisses, Big Sisters, Crushes, Dating, F/F, Flowers, Fluff and Humor, Language of Flowers, Love Confessions, Marriage Proposal, Museum Date, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Same-Sex Marriage, Secret Admirer, Secret Crush, Wedding Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-19 00:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8182034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DinasEmrys/pseuds/DinasEmrys
Summary: Weiss wakes one morning to find a flower left anonymously outside their door. When it becomes routine and she's the only one who ever finds the flowers, she realizes they're being left for her. Mellow Monochrome romance and fluff, with some Pyrruby and Elderburn as well. Cover art commissioned and used with permission from the amazing DashingIceCream.





	1. Where Flowers Bloom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this started as part of one of my writing prompt exercises on my tumblr (redsuitwriter). It was supposed to be shorter, then got ... out of hand. For the record, similar things have happened with drabbles for Prise de Fleur and a few other stories of mine, and ended or will end up getting incorporated into them. If you'd like to participate in stuff like this, please head over to my tumblr (again – redsuitwriter) and search for writing prompts on my blog.

_What in the world_?

Weiss stood at the doorway to their room, looking out at the hall, brow furrowed as she tried to understand what she was looking at. She had just locked the door behind her, muttering under her breath at the sisters' antics, and was about to step forward when she spotted something on the ground.

Practically beneath her heel was a small white flower. Perplexed, Weiss looked around. No one else was out of bed this early. No voices came of people who could have dropped it. There were no vases nearby for it to fall out of, and the windows were all shut. It couldn't have blown in, and no one was around to drop it. _So where did it come from?_

Careful not to break it, she reached down and plucked the flower from the carpet. It really was a pretty little thing – delicate and frail and, she found out the hard way, covered with thorns.

Sucking the blood from her finger, Weiss headed back into the room. Ducking automatically, she dodged Ruby's pillow before it slammed into Yang's bed, then calmly filled a glass and set it by her window. Lowering the flower into the water, she smiled. It really was a pretty little flower – she might as well keep it as long as she could.

The next morning, she woke, reached out one finger to stroke the petals, then went to dress for class. Always the first one to finish dressing, she headed out the door, and froze. Another flower lay before their door.

_Another one?_

Narrowing her eyes, Weiss looked up and down the hall. None of the doors were cracked, no one else was around. As far as she could tell, the thing had simply materialized at her feet. Frowning, she took the flower, careful not to skewer herself, and went back to place it in the water.

The next morning, Weiss kicked her covers off the second her alarm rang. Ignoring Yang's complaints, she pulled a bathrobe over her nightgown and headed for the door. Whatever, whoever was leaving them, _this_ time, she was going to find out. Grabbing the handle, she opened the door a crack and peeked out.

There was nothing there – no people, no flowers, nothing. The hall was empty and silent, everyone else either still sleeping or slowly dragging themselves from their beds. Biting her lip, she went back inside. _I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or grateful,_ she thought ruefully _. Either way, it hardly looks like it will happen again._

By the time she was ready to leave, Weiss was so convinced that it had just been a coincidence that she practically tripped on the bouquet of small white flowers that lay outside the door.

_Oh, for the love of-_

She gave one quick glare around the hall, then gave up. Grabbing the bouquet, she headed back inside, dropped it on her nightstand, and sat on the edge of the bed. Lips drawn together in a pout, she scowled at the bouquet, as if glaring at it long enough would make it give up its secrets. It wasn't a professional job, not as far as she could tell, just a small set of flowers tied together with a piece of string. No wrapper, no label, no florist's logo that she could track it back to. Pawing carefully through the stems, she looked for a note, a signature, something that would give her some idea where these kept coming from.

" _Someone_ has a secret admirer," Yang chuckled in a sing-song voice, grinning from across the room. She and Ruby were the only ones left – Blake had already finished dressing and headed to the cafeteria. Just as well – the fewer people knew about this, the better.

Weiss shuddered and dropped the flowers. " _Please_ no. I have enough to deal without that kind of aggravation."

"Why?" Ruby asked, leaning over her bed to stare down at Weiss. "I mean, it's pretty romantic, right?"

"Ruby, for all I know, it could be Cardin sending these. Or it could be Jaune's latest, idiotic attempt to 'woo' me."

"It's not," the blonde said quickly, shrugging on her shirt. "Pyrrha had a talk with him. He promised he'd stop."

"... still," Weiss said, and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. "Whoever it is, I wish they'd just tell me."

Yang rose from her bed and cracked her neck. "Maybe they're shy? Maybe they find you irresistible and can't muster up the courage to confess."

Weiss huffed and ignored her. She hated these kinds of things. _I would much rather know_ who _is pulling this sort of stunt._

She still put them in the water before they left for breakfast. Whoever's poor idea this was, it wasn't the flowers' fault.

The next day there was another set of flowers. And the day after that. And the day after that. Never more than ten, all of them bound with the same small piece of string.

By the sixth day, Weiss was livid.

"That's it," she growled, when she found the latest offering. "I won't indulge this idiocy anymore."

"Come on, Weiss," Ruby said, glancing over her shoulder. "They're just flowers."

"That's just it. They're not. It's _creepy_. And the last thing I need is another towheaded twit fawning over me. I don't care how many of them they leave. If there are flowers in the hall, they stay in the hall."

Kicking the bouquet aside, she marched off towards the cafeteria, without a second look back. By the time she came back to their room, the flowers were gone. Hoping whoever it was had taken the hint, she headed to class. It was hard to focus – she couldn't keep from glancing around, trying to see if anyone was watching her. Jaune hadn't bothered her lately, but perhaps this was just his way of skirting whatever promises he'd made Pyrrha? What if it was someone else? Maybe Fox – leaving anonymous flowers might suit him. It could even be Yang. Weiss wouldn't put it past her to pull a stunt like this. Or what if it _was_ Cardin?

 _If it is, I'm burning every one of those flowers,_ she decided. _Publically._

Lost in thought, she barely heard a word Professor Port said the entire lecture. When the lunch bell finally rang, she was the first out the door, not even saying two words to the rest of her team before she stormed down the hall. Annoyed and wanting to be alone, Weiss headed away from the busy cafeteria and headed back to their dorm. She should check. Yes. Maybe they hadn't gotten the hint. She should see if they were still there.

She was still wondering what the cleaning staff would do if they found an abandoned set of flowers, when she turned into their hallway and froze. Tied to her team's doorknob was a single white flower.

Weiss grabbed it and tore it off the door, snapping the string in two. She was about to stomp on the damn thing when she noticed a note tied to it in the same black string. Biting her cheek, she weighed her options, cursed under her breath, and unfolded the note.

It was just simple paper, with two short lines written in neat lettering in plain black ink. It said _I'm sorry. Could we meet? I'd like to apologize in person._

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Wonderful concept," she said, voice filled with sarcasm. " _If_ you'd bother to tell me where to go."

She was about to throw it away when her eyes caught on a speck of white. There, pinned to the corkboard in the hall, was another flower. A few doors down was another, tucked into the jam of a closet door. Past that was another, and another, forming a long trail of little white dots that led down the hall and out of sight.

Scowling, she reached into her pocket for her scroll. _Yang, I want you to call me in ten minutes. If I don't answer, something's wrong._ As trails went, at least it was less obvious than a path strewn with roses, but she still didn't know who was waiting at the other end.

The path lead down the hall and up a staircase. Following it, Weiss gathered the flowers in her hand, no wanting anyone else to see the trail and come looking. The little white blooms led her up two flights before finally stopping at a door that led out onto one of the roofs.

Setting the flowers aside, Weiss drew Myrtenaster from her side – anyone could be waiting out there for her. No matter what their note said, she had no idea what their intentions really were. This would be a fine way to get her alone from the rest of her team. It could be one of Nora's pranks, even.

Readying one of her glyphs, Weiss pressed the handle and shouldered the door open. She came out onto the roof, sword in hand, eyes glancing cautiously to find who might be waiting for her.

Blake sat on the edge of the wall, staring down at the ground, the last remaining flower held in her hand.

"Blake?" Weiss asked and sheathed her blade, not quite believing her eyes. "It was you?" It didn't make any sense. Blake was the _last_ person she would expect to play this kind of prank. What was the point? Get her out her and then laugh about how silly she'd been, how-

"I didn't plan this," Blake said softly, turning the flower by its stem. "I just ... I saw it one day and it reminded me of you."

The dark-haired Faunus stood, raising her head to look down into Weiss' eyes. The heiress swallowed. There wasn't any humor in Blake's eyes. No joking laughter, no teasing. She looked ... earnest. Serious. It was the look Blake got when she focused during a study session or on a mission. A sharp, piercing look Weiss had seen countless times ... but never directed at _her._

"I saw you liked it, and I wanted to get you more," she was still talking, moving forward until she was within arm's reach. "I'm sorry I worried you."

"... why those?" Weiss asked, her cheeks growing hot under Blake's stare. "Why give me flowers at all?"

"Because they're small, pretty, and prickly," Blake said, the barest hint of s smile on her face. Taking that last step forward, she held it out to Weiss with a steady hand. "And because I like you."

Weiss swallowed and glanced down. The look in Blake's eyes ... it was too intense. It didn't help that she was gorgeous, or that Weiss felt like she could fall forever into the two golden pools staring down at her.

Gingerly, she took the flower from Blake hand. The thorns had been cut away, leaving only the flower, tiny and delicate in her hand.

"Thank you," she said when she trusted her voice not the crack. Seized by a sudden urge, she took a step closer, practically touched Blake as she reach up and slid the flower behind Blake's ear. "But I think it looks better on you."

Ice-blue eyes met gold, and Weiss went stiff, her hand still brushing the side of Blake's face. _She's so close,_ Weiss thought, her stomach churning. They'd never been this close. Not like this, not with Weiss' hand practically in her hair, or with Blake staring so intently at her, looming over her. She had to look up a little to meet her eyes. _I did always like people taller than me_ , a voice in the back of her mind said, almost an afterthought as Weiss leaned in.

Her scroll chose that moment to ring. Blushing furiously, Weiss stepped back, fumbling in her pocket for the device. _Dammit Yang, of_ all _the times to actually do what I tell you._

"What?" she snapped as soon as the call went through.

"Yes, I'm fine. Yes. _Yes._ No, I'm not going to tell you." Weiss' face went a brilliant red. "No, we are _not_ making out, and ... no! That _doesn't_ mean I'm with someon ... you know what? Next time, I'm texting Ruby!" Furious, she closed her scroll with a snap and jammed it back into her pocket. _Honestly,_ she thought, _is she physically incapable of being subtle or polite for ten-_

"Yang knows it's me," Blake said softly, one hand coming up to brush the flower in her hair. "That's why she's teasing."

"Wonderful." That was just what she needed – more ammunition for Yang to annoy her with.

"So," Blake said softly, ignoring the interruption. "Can you forgive me?"

"... fine. But I expect you to make it up to me," Weiss snapped, annoyed when her voice tried to crack. "Maybe you could show me where you've been finding these. Unless you cleaned the bushes out already."

Blake's face brightened as a smile crossed her lips, sending another wave of heat rushing up Weiss' cheeks.

"I'd like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If you can, please take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.


	2. Improv and Intimacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby accidentally cancels Weiss and Blake's date by dragging the team into another play. Weiss tries to salvage something of their afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DashingIceCream was kind enough to draw the climax of chapter 1 last week, which with her permission is now the cover art for the story. Please go check out her tumblr for the full piece - I'm still grinning at how cool it is.

Weiss groaned. Not just the regular groan she used when Professor Port worked himself into one of his long-winded and increasingly unlikely tales of his supposed adventures. Or the sigh she reserved for when Ruby or Yang were in one of their more hyperactive moods. This was a true groan, a bone-deep, exasperated, patience-ground-thin kind of groan. It was a groan that echoed off the walls of the stage Ruby had assembled on the Beacon lawn, carrying across the empty grounds until it faded into the early morning mist.

She was going to kill Yang for giving Ruby that book of plays. Violently. The cops would be finding pieces for weeks.

"It's perfect!" Ruby cheered, armed with piles of copies of a play that suited her, practically hopping as she flipped through the script. "We'll have Nora as the rogue loose cannon cop with nothing to lose, Yang as her partner with only two days left until retirement, Ren as the long-suffering police captain who asks for her badge! Jaune and Pyrrha can be the two star-crossed high-school lovers who never seem to spit it out, she'll like that ..." Muttering to herself, Ruby whipped out a highlighter and started furiously marking roles and jotting down notes on her script.

Weiss changed her mind. After this, death would be too kind to the blonde smirking in the corner.

"Here!" Ruby handed her a copy of the script, then darted off to do the same to Blake. Glancing desperately at her Faunus teammate, Weiss saw Blake's defeated expression and reluctantly opened the stapled packet. "We'll start rehearsal right after class, so no lollygagging, you two!"

Weiss opened her mouth to object, then closed it, cursing silently. If she tried to get out of this, the first question out of Ruby's mouth would be why – and she wasn't ready to answer that. Yang might already know what was going on with her and Blake, but Weiss wanted discretion. For a little while at least. Not to keep it from anyone, she just ... if this didn't work out, if they realized they liked the _idea_ of dating each other more than the reality, if they decided to break it off, she'd rather not have anyone else know. It would be awkward enough as it was, without their friends getting involved. As soon as she was sure, sure that they were going to _really_ try, then she'd tell them. But not yet.

Even if it meant cancelling her second-ever date with Blake. _All for some stupid play._

Looking up from her script, she met Blake's eyes, widening hers in a silent plea. Blake blinked back and shrugged helplessly, already being bundled off by Ruby to hunt for a costume. She knew Weiss wanted to keep this quiet, at least until they had some more time together under their belts, and knew what this would be like.

 _There goes that date_ , Weiss grumbled in her head, and leaned back against the wall.

She looked down again at the lines and shuddered. It was going to be a _long_ day.

* * *

All in all, it _could_ have been worse. It could have been a musical. She and Blake could have been cast to play the teenage lovers. Ruby could have insisted on something other than one of Weiss' lesser-used sundresses for her costume.

Either from a desire to give Pyrrha a chance to show Jaune how she felt, or just to keep Yang from stealing the spotlight, the high-profile roles went to team JNPR. Fortunately for the rest of team RWBY, that meant the red-cloaked director spent most of her time with the others and left Weiss and Blake to their own devices. Which was fine by her – Weiss managed to memorize what lines she had in record time, then hide away from the stage, doing her best to ignore the chaos while getting some actual studying done. Blake apparently had the same idea, lounging in her chair with a paperback and ignoring Pyrrha and Jaune's scene entirely.

But now it meant they were on stage for rehearsal, playing a married couple with Pyrrha as their teenage daughter, having never practiced their lines with anyone but themselves. That would be bad enough, but every few minutes Ruby found some new issue with their performance. She critiqued line deliveries and blocking and generally made Weiss want to tear her hair out every time she yelled 'hold'. It was _aggravating_.

It wasn't like she _asked_ to be here. Or even auditioned. She was doing this as a _favor_ , and all she was getting for it was grief.

Gritting her teeth, Weiss folded her hands over her lap and watched Blake move to the fake door. They were almost done. Blake just had to leave the house and their scene would be finally, blessedly, over. She could go back to studying. Blake could go back to her book.

"Have a good day," Weiss said, waving calmly from the supposed 'living room' while Blake exited stage left.

"No, no, no!" Ruby chanted from beneath the stage. "What was _that_?"

Hopping up onto the stage, the younger girl waved her arms at the dark-haired Faunus currently rubbing the bridge of her nose. "You can't just say ' _goodbye_.' Show some emotional investment, some character! She's your _wife_!"

"I thought I was playing a man?" the 'wife' in question asked, glancing down at the old-style suit Ruby had scrounged from somewhere.

"Husband then. Whatever!"

"Well, which is it?" Weiss asked. "You barely told us anything about the roles-"

"Bellisario's maxim, Weiss! It's a play – husband, wife, it doesn't matter!" Jumping off the stage, Ruby dropped back into her chair and grabbed the cone she _insisted_ on speaking through. "Action!"

"Ruby, if it doesn't matt-"

"ACTION!"

Her smile forced, Weiss turned back to the stage. _Fine. Let's just get this over with._

"Have a good day," she said, forcing a cheery tone and catching Blake's sleeve as she turned to leave.

Standing on tiptoe, she leaned in to kiss Blake's cheek. It was just a little improvisation, but it should appease Ruby, make it clear that she was at least pretending to care about this play. And ... it was one way to salvage _something_ out of what would have been their date.

After all, this was something she wanted to do since that day on the roof. That moment – Blake giving her the flower, the two of them almost kissing – it gnawed at her for days, taunting her when she tried to study and when she laid down to sleep. Weiss couldn't forget the look on Blake's face when she leaned in, her hand still in Blake's hair. That look of longing, desire, nervousness, and something she couldn't quite name.

At least this would lay the groundwork for a _real_ kiss. Something ... more, later, when they weren't on a stage surrounded by their closest friends. But this would do for now.

She couldn't help but blush as she got close, closing her eyes rather than look at what she was doing. Even with something so innocent, the idea that everyone was watching them – that she could kiss Blake in public and no one would be any the wiser – it was thrilling and embarrassing at the same time. And definitely, _absolutely_ worth it. Plus, it would be rather amusing to see Blake's face when she-

Weiss' eyes flew open as her lips met Blake's. Ice-blue eyes stared in utter shock into wide golden pools, both girls equally surprised. In the moment she'd grabbed Blake's sleeve, the Faunus girl turned to look at her, Blake's mouth ending up where her cheek had been a second before. It caught the both of them by surprise, leaving them frozen in shock, bolted in place as both minds frantically tried to remember how to use their limbs. Both were too startled to pull away, and it was a good few seconds before Weiss fell back onto her heels, blinking wildly, her cheeks a brilliant red.

Blake blinked several times, then reached for the hat Ruby had insisted she use. Settling it on her head, she turned to leave, her face impassive as she walked off the edge of the stage and vanished behind the curtains.

"Ehhh. I'm not feeling it." Ruby said from beneath the stage, oblivious to the _beaming_ blonde sitting behind her, hands clasped over her mouth to keep from howling. "You know what? Everybody take five and we'll try it again. Weiss – good effort, but if you're gonna do that, you gotta _commit_."

Too shocked to snap back at her, Weiss nodded and stalked offstage, her hands balled at her sides. _Why_? Why did _everything_ have to go wrong today? What deity had she offended so thoroughly in the last eight hours that they felt the need to assemble a conga line of disappointment and humiliation, just for her? _Of all the rotten luck_ -

"Weiss."

The heiress froze, her blood turning to ice in her veins. Looking back, she found Blake staring at her, still wearing the pitch-black fedora atop her head. It ... it actually wasn't a bad look for her. She normally wore a vest anyway, and even if the hat was a bit much, her black suit was rather nice. _She definitely cleans up well._

"I-I'm sorry," Weiss managed, her face turning steadily more red. "I was just going to kiss your cheek and I didn't mean ... it was an accident, and ..."

Weiss trailed off as Blake stepped forward, cupped the back of her neck, and pulled her into a deep, lingering kiss. For a split second, Weiss' eyes flew open, her body gone stiff with shock. Her heart stopped, followed by the rest of her body. Her brain shut down. She couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't speak. Panic flooded through her, immediately followed by the realization that she was _kissing_ Blake.

She hadn't planned for this. _Any_ of this. Weiss wanted to kiss her, yes, but it was supposed to be on her terms. She'd had a plan. A plan. For their third date, when every book and movie told her she was _supposed_ to kiss her. After dinner, she would be walking home with Blake, they'd kiss under the stars and it would be romantic and perfect and Blake would hold her in her arms ... She would have had time to _prepare_ for this, to think about what she was supposed to do. This wasn't fair.

 _Oh god._ What if her breath smelled? She wasn't moving – should she be moving? What should she do with her nose? And what was Blake going to think if she just stood there like a log?

A thousand fears ran through her at once, dueling violently with the part of her that loved the way Blake's hand gently nestled in her hair, the feel of Blake's lips on hers, the warmth slowly and steadily seeping through her limbs. Some part of her wanted to run, to push the gorgeous Faunus away and find some hole to hide in for the rest of her days, but it was a very small part. The rest ...

The rest of her wanted to stay in Blake's arms forever and never let go.

Blake came up for air, and for split second, the sweetness faded. Weiss could barely breathe, her mind still trying to make sense of what just happened. She opened her mouth to apologize, to insist it was an accident, that she hadn't meant to kiss Blake, that it was ... it was ...

 _Oh, to hell with it._ Reaching up, Weiss grabbed the taller girl by her lapels and yanked her down, claiming her lips as she dragged them even further behind the curtains. Blake didn't object once, moving until she had Weiss pinned against the wall, the heiress' arms twining happily behind her head.

Maybe this hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If you can, please take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.
> 
> One last time, thanks so much Dash - that made my week.


	3. The Language of Flowers

Weiss glared down at her choices, eyebrows creased in a deep frown. Her arms crossed as she tapped her foot, trying to make up her mind.

She stood beneath the glass arch of a greenhouse, the whole building kept warm year-round and positively filled with light. The entire shop smelled of fresh-cut flowers. Hanging plants hung from the rafters, trailing over their pots to snag the odd customer who got too close. Sunflowers basked in the corner, turned towards the sun and glowing from the light that came down through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse.

Everywhere she looked were plants, from saplings waiting for a home to pre-cut arrangements that would only last a week. She spent a few minutes looking at those – not to buy, but to see how they were made, what went into arranging them the right way, separating out the blooms so they weren't just one chaotic mass of color.

When she had a decent understanding of the concept, she turned and made her way down the first aisle she found.

She needed a focal flower. Something large. Roses could work. They symbolized passion and romance, two things she was definitely interested in ... but red was hardly the right color. Not for them.

White roses meant virtue or chastity. _Not quite the right message._ Black roses were connected to death or black magic. White primroses weren't large enough, even if the meaning worked. Their ... the thought of calling it 'love' still made Weiss blush. But their relationship was definitely 'young.' It had only been a few weeks, after all.

But that would be about her. The next possibility, the primroses, were white – they were her colors, her feelings. Blake had found flowers that reminded her of Weiss. That said what Weiss meant to her. She'd be a poor girlfriend if she couldn't do the same.

_Why does almost everything associated with affection_ have _to be red?_

Weiss discarded Belladonna out of hand. It was too obvious, too simple. By her third patrol around the greenhouse, she gave up on finding quite the right flower.

A mix then. Black roses for the focal flower. Roses always meant beauty, didn't they? Decided, she made her back way down the first aisle, lips pursed into a thin line. Nothing was black, a _true_ black – the black of Blake's hair, her clothes, her ears. She hadn't expected them to be. She just needed one that was close enough.

A dark purple would be fine, but all of them were still too red. One called a 'Nigrette' was close, with deep red-black velvet leaves that she just had to stroke. They were lovely, but not right. Not for Blake. She needed ...

_There._ Weiss' eyes landed on a small setting of roses in the corner, labeled 'Midnight Blue.' The blooms were a deep, rich purple, perfect to match the color of Blake's eyeshadow. She stopped and breathed in the scent. They smelled sweet and spicy all at once, a mix she couldn't name and didn't want to try. _Mysterious and beautiful. Exactly what I need._

Broken tulips were next, their violet leaves broken by feather-like lines of white. _That would do,_ she thought, looking down at her choices. Dark roses for beauty. Striped violet tulips for Blake's eyes. Spanish Jasmine for ... well, she needed _something_ white. Blake didn't need to know what _that_ one was for. And Lily of the Valley, for how Blake made her feel.

The cashier offered to put them together for her, but Weiss just shook her head and added florist's scissors and string to her purchases. Blake had done hers by hand. She wanted to do the same.

It took her hours to put the bouquet together, helped along by ten different articles on her scroll, all giving different advice on the best way to do it herself. The dyeing was first. Weiss used a floral spray dye she had bought from the shop to turn a set of salal leaves as black as Blake's hair. It was the only way she would get that color, and placing them alongside the purple petals made their colors gleam. One by one, she added the flowers, using the pitch-black stems of salal to space them out. By the time she was done, the spare workshop she had borrowed was filled with pieces of stems and leaves, the tarp she'd laid down now covered in spots of black. Finally, after hours of arranging and trimming and adjusting, she sat back and admired her work.

It wasn't perfect. She was sure a professional job would be better, the flowers more evenly placed, the stems trimmed better. But it was _hers_. And Blake ... Blake would like that.

* * *

Her bouquet covered with a paper bag, Weiss made her way down the hallway. There wasn't any reason to hide it, but the last thing Weiss wanted was inane questions about the flowers. Who had given them to her, if they were meant for someone else, the inevitable annoyance from any number of schoolmates who couldn't control their curiosity.

It was easier to just keep things between them. To keep things private. _No one else needs to know we're were together, and considering my father ... it's probably for the best._

Yang knew. Apparently the blonde noticed Blake moping one day and hadn't let the Faunus alone until she'd admitted why. Ruby knew now, too. After their kiss during the rehearsal, she and Blake sat Ruby down in their dorm room and told her they were dating. There hadn't been much question about that, not after Weiss found herself pinned against the wall, breathless with Blake's lips on her neck. _That_ had been a new experience, for both of them, if the surprised and wanting look Blake gave her was any indication. Thankfully no one had caught them; she doubted Yang would have ever given up teasing them for that.

Weiss frowned as she turned the corner, ducking past a group of second-years on their way to the cafeteria. Maybe that wasn't fair. From what Blake told her, she might not have left that first flower if it wasn't for Yang. The blonde had been the one to encourage her, and when Weiss became fed up with the flowers, it was Yang who convinced Blake to confess how she felt.

_I owe her,_ Weiss admitted to herself. She didn't like the feeling. She didn't like being in anyone's debt, even if it was the kind of thing Yang would undoubtedly play off. That would be her next project, she supposed. Finding some way to make that up to Yang, to thank her.

Right after she gave Blake her gift.

The door was closed when she made it back to the room. Blake said she would be studying there all day, which meant alternating between actual work and making her way through the mountain of fiction she had borrowed from the school library. Either way, it was good for Weiss. It meant she would be in the room, that they would have it to themselves for Weiss give her the flowers. _And maybe ..._

The memory of Blake's hands on her arms came unbidden to her mind, the way their bodies pressed together ... _Well, make that another reason why having the room to ourselves is a good thing._

The doorknob was in her hand, already halfway turned, when she heard a quiet voice from the other side of the door. Freezing, she stopped, and eased the handle back into place.

"It's not that," the voice said. It took Weiss a second to recognize it. Ruby's voice normally didn't have to travel through an inch and-a-half of wood for her to hear it. "I _know_ I'm younger than everyone else, and there isn't anything I can do about it. Kinda got used to it by now."

"Ah." That was Blake. Weiss would know that voice anywhere. "You don't want her to see you as a child."

There wasn't an answer, or at least not one Weiss could hear. Then something creaked – a bed from the sound of it. _Blake's, probably. You can't get up to Ruby's that quietly._

_Maybe I should come back later,_ she thought. Whatever was bothering Ruby, she had the right to her privacy. Eavesdropping wasn't becoming of an aspiring huntress, and certainly not for a Schnee. Then again... she _really_ was curious.

"Two years isn't that much," Ruby grumbled from inside the dorm room.

"No, it's not."

"Plus, I'm almost sixteen already. My birthday's in a month." Ruby was muttering, low enough that Weiss could barely make it out. "She's not _that_ much older."

"Then wait a month," said Blake. "If it makes you feel better, wait. Then tell her. You shouldn't rush this if you're not ready for it. If you think this will be easier if you're officially sixteen, then wait."

There was another long silence.

"Thanks, Blake."

The bed creaked again as someone stood. Pulling away from the door, Weiss brushed herself off, running a quick hand through her hair to make sure everything was in order. Alright, whatever was going on with Ruby, Weiss needed to move. If their conversation was done, it was only a matter of time before one of them went for the door. She had a choice: leave or enter.

Taking a breath, Weiss turned the knob and stepped into the room, paper bag held down by her side.

"Blake, I have some-," she stopped, her eyes going wide in feigned surprise. "Oh? Hello, Ruby. Sorry, I thought Blake would be alone."

Ruby was already bouncing off the edge of Blake's bed. "Yeah. Sorry about bothering you, Blake."

The cat-eared Faunus shook her head and smiled. "Anytime. I mean it."

"Thanks." Ruby glanced between the two of them, her eyes slowly getting wider as she realized why Weiss might want Blake to be alone. "Sorry, I'm ... gonna go study." Ruby backed away like a camper before a bear, eyes flicking between the two of them.

"She truly is a horrible liar," Weiss said when the door finally closed. Shaking her head – this was weird enough without Ruby adding an extra dose of awkwardness to the mix – she turned to look at Blake. "What was that about?"

"Ruby wanted advice about a girl." Blake gave her a sideways look. "Which you already know, since you were listening at the door."

Weiss winced and sat down beside the taller girl. To her chagrin, her feet came off the floor. Even in heels her legs were too short to do much more than dangle absently. "You could tell?"

"Ears like a cat, remember?"

She sighed. It was the one downside to having Blake as a roommate – no one could get away with anything. "Fair enough. Anyone I know?"

Blake shrugged and scooted closer, moving until her shoulder pressed softly against Weiss'. Lips curling in a smile, Weiss leaned back into her, her own shoulder fitting snugly beneath Blake's. It was one of her favorite positions, leaned back against the taller girl with her head on Blake's shoulder.

"You should ask her, if you really want to know." Dark brows furrowed as Blake sniffed the air, her nose crinkling from the floral scent that wafted up from Weiss' side. "What's in the bag?"

Weiss blinked and straightened. Right. The whole point of coming here in the first place.

She went slow, careful to keep from breaking any of the stems as she drew the bouquet up and out of the bag. Setting the bag aside, she held it in her hands, staring down at the arrangement as a smile played across her lips. Not a single petal was out of place.

"For you," she said, and held it out for Blake to take.

Golden eyes went wide as Blake stared down at her, her ears flicking back beneath her bow. Her mouth opened, less than an inch, just enough for Weiss to see the question on the tip of her tongue.

"You didn't have to do this."

"Yes, I did." Weiss said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She reached over and took Blake's hand, pressing the bouquet into it. When she was sure the other girl wasn't about to drop her gift, she took her hands away. Slowly, making sure Blake saw the gesture, she ran them up the sides of the blooms until she reached one the roses.

"Because you're beautiful," Weiss said, her cheeks hot. "And you deserve it. You deserve more, actually, but this is a start."

She reached down to brush her fingers over the tulips, trickling down the white lines on their sides. "Because I keep losing myself in your eyes."

Finally, she brought her hands down, past the little white bells ringing the bottom, wrapping her fingers around Blake's. Her hands were warm beneath Weiss' palms, trembling just for a second before the heiress held them in her own. Weiss looked up into those golden eyes, and saw the surprise in them. The shock that anyone, even Weiss would do something like this for her.

Sighing, Weiss reached up and drew Blake down to her, careful not the crush the flowers between them.

"And because you gave one to me."

They kissed for what felt like hours, as the world fell away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If you can, please take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.
> 
> So you know, most of these are coming from prompts submitted to my tumblr. If you'd like to see the drabbles before they get compiled, or select your own prompts, please go check it out at [redsuitwriter.tumblr.com](http://redsuitwriter.tumblr.com/search/writing+prompt).


	4. Art and Attraction

"You still haven't told me where we're going," Blake said with a frown.

Humming to herself, Weiss made a show of staring out the monorail window, to the buildings whipping by and cars creeping along below. For all her reservations about taking 'public' transport, this really wasn't so bad. The padded seats of Vale's central monorail was soft and comfortable, the car smelled clean, and no one had made eye contact or tried to speak a word to her the entire trip. It was a blessing, to be honest, a nice quiet spot of peace where everyone was absorbed in their own business and didn't feel the need to interfere with hers.

"I believe that is the point of a surprise, Blake," Weiss said, adjusting her skirts. "Plus, we're almost there already."

Blake gave a concerned look out the window, looking about as she tried to place where they were within the city limits.

 _In hindsight,_ Weiss thought, frowning herself as Blake became more cautious. _Perhaps keeping it a surprise was not the best idea._ It was a good surprise, or at least she hoped it would be. But Blake had grown quieter and quieter as time went on, furtive glances out the windows becoming more and more frequent.

Glancing down, Weiss looked at Blake's hand and bit her cheek. It was a small gesture, and hardly an inappropriate one. And with Blake's ears covered there was zero chance that news of her date with a Faunus might get back to her father. _Still ..._

Shoving aside what worries she had, Weiss reach out and laid her hand on Blake's. Sure enough, no one other than the dark-haired woman beside her made any sign that they cared, much less noticed the small gesture of affection.

"If you need to know, I'll be happy to tell you," Weiss said, keeping her voice low. "But it's not something you need to be worried about. It's a place you'll enjoy, and I thought a nice, quiet afternoon for the two of us would do some good."

Blake looked from her to the hand resting atop her own. Then she breathed, one long puff of air that carried with it some of her nervous energy. Turning her hand beneath Weiss', Blake twined their fingers together, and squeezed.

"Sorry."

Weiss shook her head and squeezed back. "No need to be."

There wasn't, although at some point, Weiss knew she would have to get Blake to actually talk about why not knowing their destination made her nervous. It could just be jitters about their date – this would be their fourth, after a few trips to get tea and Blake taking a day to show Weiss around her favorite bookstores. The 'used bookshop' concept had been new to Weiss, mostly because she was quite capable of buying herself or Blake whatever book they wanted without digging through someone's castoffs. When she pointed this out to Blake, the Faunus had given her an odd look, and said that wasn't the point.

So she let the matter drop, and quietly made several purchase orders for any books Blake mentioned having a hard time finding.

The other possibility, besides nerves over being on yet another of their small but growing collection of dates, was something in Blake's past, and Weiss knew getting _that_ out of her girlfriend would be as easy and pleasant as performing dental work on a live beowolf. Still ... if it was something that might effect their relationship, better to talk about it sooner than later, when it might become a real problem.

The train slowed, the deceleration jarring Weiss out of her reverie. Still holding Blake's hand, she stood, reaching for one of the handholds.

"Right this way," she said, pulling gently as she tugged Blake from her seat.

* * *

The weather was clear outside the monorail station. The skies were clear apart from a few clouds with the consistency of cooked marshmallows floating across the endless blue. It was the kind of perfect day to be spent outside, and Weiss felt a kind of perverse pleasure knowing that where they were going, they wouldn't see a bit of it.

"Alright, _milady_." Blake sighed, her hand still holding on to Weiss'. "Will you please tell me where we're going?"

Weiss frowned at the title. To be fair, they hadn't been dating long enough to really have pet names for the other. _And I doubt Blake would approve of calling them 'pet names.'_ It could just be something Blake was trying out. If so ... well, it wouldn't be her first choice, at least.

She decided not to mention it. Instead, Weiss raised her free hand and pointed off to their left, past the station to a large, angular building. It was higher than some of the others, with a set of steps running up to a line of columns before the entrance. Long banners draped from the tops of the pillars, proclaiming the museum's most recent exhibit – some collection of Mistralan works dating back to before the Great War.

"I noticed you paging through the library's art books," Weiss admitted, watching Blake's face and waiting for her reaction. "I know you had to cancel your last trip into town, so I thought this might be nice."

She didn't mention the rapt look on Blake's face as she had turned the pages, or the way the taller girl's fingers lingered on a few of the works, as if they could somehow touch them through the page. After all, there wasn't much art to find outside the kingdoms. Ruins, yes, but fragile works don't survive long in that world.

Which meant all Blake likely grew up with were what few photos she could find in the few books she could get her hands on. When Weiss had seen her pouring over those art books, paging through prints of old masters and impressionists ... well, at the very least, a trip to the Vale Royal Museum seemed like a good date idea.

"It is." Blake smiled as she turned, golden eyes bright as she met Weiss' gaze. "Shall we?"

They spent the remainder of the day touring the museum, not leaving until the very last announcement that the building was about to close. Weiss watched as Blake wandered through the galleries, rapt with attention as she walked between the broken Mantelian sculptures and the gentle rolling hills that seemed so common in Vale's pre-war art. She watched Blake's fingers twitch as she stared up at a Mistralan kimono in bright reds and golds, flowers and cranes painstakingly embroidered onto the sleeves. She saw the way Blake's eyes followed the brush strokes on each oil panting their passed, the way her hands seemed to itch to touch the canvas, to know what the ridges feel like, how different it was as an object rather than a picture in a book.

And when Blake froze in front of one – a beautiful depiction of Forever Fall in its lonely, red-stained glory. Weiss knew she'd found the right one.

The original was out of the question. It was far too fragile, even if she could manage it, and she doubted even her trust fund stretched _that_ far. But she knew a painter her father would use from time to time to make copies of his collection. Those were the ones that actually hung on his office walls, the originals kept safe, locked away in his private faults. Each was a near-perfect copy, just slightly altered in some small way, enough that it wouldn't count as a forgery. The wrong house here, a structure from a century later there, small errors that left it almost identical to the untrained eye.

Which was why she could hardly keep from grinning when the package finally arrived two weeks later, hand-delivered by a very well-tipped delivery boy. It was worth every single lien to see the look on Blake's face when she sat her down and pressed the painting into her hands, the sheer wonder when Weiss pulled the covering cloth away. Pride surged in her chest as Blake tentatively pressed her fingers against the canvas, gently following the hills and valleys, the waves of red leaves and flowers beneath the pale sky. When she finally the look on Blake's face, at the exact moment she realized it was _hers,_ Weiss couldn't help but beam.

* * *

Breakfast was often a hectic time for team JNPR. With Nora's antics and the sheer energy of several dozen hunters in training it was as likely to turn into a scramble for the last of the syrup as it was a knock-down drag-out food fight. So sometimes, when she was the first one up and felt like having a quiet morning, Pyrrha would slip down to the cafeteria ahead of the others, catching the staff just as they opened, happy to have the dining hall all to herself.

Plate stacked with fruit, eggs, and toast, Pyrrha took her seat at her team's usual table and began to eat. Smiling to herself, Pyrrha pulled out her scroll, paging languidly through the day's news as she ate. Apart from the sounds of her chewing and the distant movements of the cafeteria staff, the room was completely and utterly still.

Until the doors banged open, and a small, red-cloaked figure came rushing into the room.

Panting as if she'd run the entire way from the dorms, Ruby bent and put her hands on her knees, breath coming in short, ragged gasps.

"G-good ... morning," she said, having to breath between every other word. "How's ... breakfast?"

"It's fine, Ruby. Thank you for asking." Pyrrha smiled and gestured to the seat across from her. "Care to join me?"

In a flash and a spray of petals, the dark-haired girl was sliding onto the bench, her own breakfast tipping wildly after Ruby's Mach Two run through the buffet. Steadying her food, Ruby dove in with gusto, devouring her meal as if she hadn't eaten in days.

Shaking her head and fighting not to chuckle, Pyrrha went back to her meal. There was something about the youngest member of Team RWBY she had always liked. Her optimism, maybe, the can-do attitude she brought to everything she did. Or maybe it was just the obvious joy she showed at being a huntress in training. Either way, it was hard not to smile with Ruby Rose around.

"Pyrrha," Ruby asked and swallowed a mouthful of cereal. "Would you ... is it okay if I ask you a question?"

Looking up from her breakfast, Pyrrha found herself staring into Ruby's silver eyes. The girl looked ... well, uncomfortable. She wouldn't quite meet Pyrrha's gaze, and she kept fidgeting with her cloak, her fingers worrying at the hem.

"Of course, Ruby," Pyrrha smiled. It was clear something was embarrassing the girl. Better if Ruby felt comfortable talking with her, whatever it was. "How can I help?"

"Well," Ruby started, scratching at the back of her head. "I was ... well ..."

Pyrrha waited while she stammered, brows coming together in a frown when Ruby fell silent. _Whatever this is, it's really bothering her._

"Never mind," Ruby sighed and sagged in her seat.

"Really? It's alright, Ruby. You can ask me anything, I promise."

The younger girl opened her mouth for a second, then closed it, finally switching to staring down at the table while her finger ran circles over the surface.

"Anyway ... it's nice to have you and Nora in the Combat Skirt Squad with Weiss and me, but ..."

Pyrrha cocked her head when the younger girl trailed off. Combat Skirts weren't what she was expecting. Then again, Ruby _did_ take her combat training seriously. Maybe she wanted to arrange a practice match between the four of them. It might not be a perfect match – Weiss was less of a frontline fighter than the other three – but it would make for some interesting tactical work at least.

Twiddling her fingers, Ruby blushed and looked away. "Well, isn't it a little ... short? And ... tight?"

 _Oh._ Well. More of ... not what she expected. But that was fine. Really.

"It's actually short on purpose." Pyrrha smiled ran one hand down the skirt. "You, Weiss, and Nora use longer skirt, but they're also wide. It lets you move easily. Mine's not as loose, so keeping it short gives me a better range of motion."

"Oh."

"Plus," Pyrrha leaned over to meet Ruby's eyes. Leaning in, she whispered, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "I just like wearing it. I makes me feel pretty, you know?"

"... yeeeeah." Ruby sighed wistfully, then went bright red. Suddenly, she was a blur of motion again, hands flailing about as she stacked her now-empty dishes back onto her tray. "A-anyway, I gotta go ... sharpen my dog. Wait, I-I mean ... walk my scythe. I mean ... bye."

Her face as bright as her cloak, Ruby Rose vanished out the cafeteria doors, leaving a very confused and curious Mistralan in her wake.

 _Well that was odd,_ Pyrrha thought, going back to the remains of her breakfast. _Cute, but odd._

Swallowing her bite, the redhead smiled to herself. _If she thinks that's short, I wonder how she'd react if I wore the skirt without my boots?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If you can, please take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.
> 
> So you know, most of these are coming from prompts submitted to my tumblr. If you'd like to see the drabbles before they get compiled, or select your own prompts, please go check it out at redsuitwriter dot tumblr dot com. (Extended sigh for FF's linking policies)


	5. First Steps

"Are you sure it's alright?" Weiss asked as she lay her hand on Blake's shoulder. She angled her head, trying to meet Blake's eyes, and failed. Her girlfriend sat beside her on her bed, staring intently into the corner of the room, half-lost in her own thoughts

"I don't have to tell her you're a Faunus, not if you don't want me to."

For a second, Blake went perfectly still. Weiss watched as she slowly pulled one edge of her lip between her teeth, eyes moved occasionally as she tried to think.

Weiss waited. It wasn't something she enjoyed, even if she wasn't as impatient as either of their other two teammates. _But this is important, for the both of us,_ she thought, running her hand cautiously along Blake's back. _To let someone in on her secret, and when that someone is another Schnee ... it can't be easy._

Finally, Blake stirred, ducking her head as she breathed. Just as slowly, she emptied her lungs in one long rush of air, then slowly leaned back against the heiress.

"... I don't want you to have to lie to your sister, Weiss."

"There is a difference between lying and not telling her something."

"Still," Blake shook her head. Her hand found Weiss' knee and squeezed – Weiss wasn't sure if it was from a need for connection or if she sensed Weiss' own trepidations about their plan.

"It's fine. You said you trust her."

"That is not-"

"Weiss," Blake sighed, and leaned her head against her girlfriend's. "I trust you. If you think it's safe to tell Winter, then it's fine with me."

* * *

An hour later, Weiss found herself seated at a wrought-iron table, set beneath a trellis at the back of one of Beacon's gardens. Potted plants lines the walls of the space, walling it off from the rest of the world and adding to the already earth scent. Teas sat before them on the table, carefully prepared just as Winter liked, by an already-too-nervous Weiss.

She hadn't expected this to be quite so ... awkward. Winter had flown in that morning, arriving at the school barely twenty minutes after her talk with Blake. Weiss had decided to have their chat away from the room, away from anywhere Ruby or Yang might show up unexpected. The garden seemed like a perfect choice, private and secluded, and far enough away from the practice courts that no one would bother them.

Only now, the solitude she'd wanted was coming back to bite her. Everything was too quiet, the air filled only by the sound of china clinking against metal as Winter stirred her tea.

Her time was running out. By the time Winter finished her ritual, put the cup to her lips and took her first sip, Weiss' chance to tell her would be gone. Winter would ask about her life at school, about her team, her friends. She would, without meaning to, leave Weiss constantly trying to find the right moment to change the subject, trying to find a way to answer a question her sister hadn't asked.

"Winter, I ..." she started, then lost the words. _How do you tell your sister that you've fallen for a girl, someone who flies in the face of everything your father stands for? How do I tell her I'm in love with a Faunus? With a former member of the White Fang, not to mention someone who personally stole our family's property?_

... _maybe leave that part for later._

"I have something I need to tell you," Weiss said, jaw tight as she stared up at her sister over their tea.

"Yes?" Winter brought her eyes up, lingering just long enough to let Weiss know she was listening. "What is it?"

"I have someone I ..." There had to be a better way to say this. _Someone I'm dating? Someone I'm with? Someone I ... someone I love?_

This was getting her nowhere. "Winter, I am seeing someone."

Winter didn't even blink as she laid her spoon aside. "Yes. Your dark-haired teammate," she said, the raised the cup to her lips. She took one long sip, the ghost of a smile flickering across her lips.

"You knew?"

Winter raised an eyebrow, then set her cup back on its saucer. "Of course. Was it supposed to be some sort of secret?"

"I ... in a way," Weiss fumbled, trying to get herself back on track. "How did you know?"

"Besides the two of you whispering in corners?" Winter's voice was dry. Leaning back in her chair, she brought her tea with her, crossing her legs as she posed in her chair. "Since I arrived, you keep glancing at her as if she is some fragile art piece I am about to break."

_That's ... not entirely inaccurate,_ Weiss mused. _Well, at least that's one down. If she already knew about Blake, and she hasn't said anything, then she must not disapprove. Or she does, and she was waiting for me to tell her. As some sort of test? Or..._

"Winter, please don't make this into a big deal, but," Weiss paused, waiting for the storm of objections she knew was coming.

She took a breath, and spoke the three words she had agonized over since Winter had told she was coming to visit.

"She's a Faunus."

There was a long pause. Winter just stared at her, her face completely impassive as she stared across the wrought-iron garden table.

"And?" she asked, reaching down for her tea.

" _And_?" Weiss repeated. "What do you mean, 'and'?"

"You thought I would object?"

"I," Weiss started, then closed her mouth. "It was possible, yes."

Winter twitched her brows and took another sip. "Weiss, I have had plenty of experience with Faunus inside the Atlas military. For all Beacon is more ... lax, I have complete faith she is just as dedicated and disciplined as any of my colleagues." Her lips twisted again in a wry smile. "Plus, she could hardly be some thieving hooligan if _you're_ interested in her."

Weiss opened her mouth, a rebuke already on her tongue, then closed it. _One step at a time. We can talk about ... that kind of thing later. And I suppose 'thieving hooligan' is better than some of the things_ I _said in our first year._

"Thank you for being so understanding," Weiss said, still a little taken aback. She had thought her relationship with Blake was rather quiet. Only their closest friends knew about it so far, and that only because they already knew the secret of Blake's ears. But if Winter had figured it out ... someone else could have.

Shaking her head, Weiss nodded in thanks and reached for her own tea. There wasn't anything she could do about it now. Better to deal with Winter now and worry about everything else when she could find the time.

Weiss heard Winter speaking and glanced back up, pulling her out of her own head.

"I won't tell the family. We both know Father and Mother would overreact, and Whitley would never keep this secret from them."

This time, Weiss smile was genuine. She hadn't been sure how Winter would feel about keeping this from their parents. But it seemed her worries had been pointless.

"Thank you."

Now it was Winter's turn to nod. "In that case," she said, setting her cup and saucer back down on the table. "May I actually meet her? Now that you are convinced I won't attack her on sight?"

Weiss smiled and sipped the last of her tea. "I'd like that."

* * *

"Well, it was nice meeting all of Weiss' teammates," Winter said, walking by Yang's side through the Beacon courtyard. "I'm happy to see she has such loyal friends."

Yang smiled politely and kept her eyes on the path ahead of them. She wasn't sure why she'd been nominated as Winter's escort out of their dormitory. She had a feeling it had to do with the serious glances Blake and Weiss kept giving each other. And the hands that kept touching. Hell, when Yang had walked in, the whole room had been radiating with an aura of 'we need to talk, but it's okay.'

To be fair, Weiss had asked her to stay away from the dorm today. And she would have too, if she hadn't forgotten one of her assignments. Now, instead of working on Oobleck's paper, she was serving babysitting duty so Blake and Weiss could have a chance to talk.

"So ... I get the feeling Weiss told you?" Yang asked. From how close they were standing when Yang walked in, she got the feeling they weren't trying to hide it from Winter any more.

"About her and your partner?" Winter asked, glancing over at her. "Yes. Blake seems like a very responsible and capable young woman. Weiss could certainly do worse."

"Yeah," Yang grinned. "Blake's the best partner I could want. But Weiss is just as good. You should be proud of her. She's a pretty good partner for Ruby, when they're not arguing. Helps her with her studies and everything."

"I am glad to hear it." Winter's mouth twitched in a slight smile, a pretty big show for a woman who always seemed so reserved. "Although how she manages to study with you in the same room, I'll never know."

Yang jerked to a halt. Winter couldn't have ... did she just ...?

No. No, there had to be something she missed. Some context that made _that_ make sense. Maybe she meant because Yang was loud. She'd seen their match against FNKI – maybe it was a crack at Yang's combat style.

"Sorry, what was that?" Yang said, cocking her head. _Right. That must be it. She'll explain what she meant, I'll feel silly, and then I get her onto her ship and out of my hair._

Winter paused and turned to look at her. "When I came here the first time, Blake wasn't the one I was expecting Weiss to fall for. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised – we've always had slightly different tastes."

"A-are you ... hitting on me?" The words sounded even more unbelievable as they left Yang's mouth. The idea of Winter – of Weiss' sister _– hitting_ on her was ... it was weird in five different kinds of ways.

Winter's brows clashed together in a scowl so like Weiss' that Yang couldn't miss the family resemblance. Yang thought she'd develop an immunity to it, after all this time living with Weiss, but the elder Schnee put her little sister to shame, with a stare so imperious Yang couldn't help but swallow.

"Miss Xiao Long, I am a Schnee. I would never do something so crass as to 'hit on' a young woman." Her expression stayed steely as she stared into Yang's eyes, then just as quickly, she relaxed. Not much, but enough for the disapproving scowl to turn to an appraising look. She moved closer, then reached up to brush a stray blonde lock back into place. "I would, however, ask what you are doing tonight."

"I ... I," Yang froze for a second. Was this really happening? Did Weiss' sister – Weiss' _older_ sister – really just ask her out?

"I didn't have plans," she said gamely.

"Good." Winter smiled, genuinely smiled, knocking Yang for a loop as her breath caught in her throat.

_Oh crap._

"Now," she said, her voice a little lower than it had been before. It was deeper, huskier, edged with just enough gravel to make it just a little bit intimidating. "Where exactly do you go in this town for fun?"

It took Yang a few seconds to gather herself, to focus on the words and not just the ice-blue eyes that stared down at her, promising ... whatever it was, it was dark and primal and a promise that this was one time Yang _wouldn't_ be the one in control.

She stepped back, putting some distance between herself and the ... the really, really distracting huntress.

"Wait right here," she managed. "Don't move."

It took her two minutes to make it back to the dorm room. Five to swap into her on-the-town clothes. Within eight she was back, leather jacket snug over her shoulders.

Winter was still there in the courtyard, legs crossed as she sat on a bench, an amused expression on her face. Her head turned at the sound of boots on the flagstones. She met Yang's eyes, and with an expression that left very little doubt about what she was doing, she looked the breathless blonde up and down, her gaze lingering the longest on the line of skin between Yang's skirt and her thigh-highs, and along the curves that peeked out above her top.

"So, _Yang_." Winter said as she rose, her voice equal parts challenge and invitation. "Where to?"

Yang grinned. Weiss was going to _murder_ her.

"I know just the place."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now that I finally got around to finishing this other prompt, I get to start adding in the Elderburn. Hope people enjoy it.


	6. Private Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slight addition to the cover art, considering one of the other main pairings for the story. Commissioned from DashingIceCream and used with permission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: For reference's sake, I'm saying that the drinking age in Remnant is 18, like the majority of real-world countries.

"What do you think you're doing?" Weiss asked, one hand coming up to fix her hair as she stared up the staircase at Blake.

After Winter had left their dorm, accompanied by a reluctant Yang, Blake wordlessly took Weiss' hand and led her out of the dorms, up the rear staircase of the hall until they reached the top floor of the building. She hadn't said much as they walked, merely that she wanted to talk somewhere they wouldn't be interrupted.

Now Blake looked back at the heiress, gold eyes questioning. Wordlessly, Weiss pointed to the door. There, in large, stenciled letters, was the phrase 'Do Not Enter.'

"Weiss, it's not like there's an alarm." Blake cocked her head. "This is the only roof that isn't visible from the dorms or one of the other buildings. They have that there because they don't want students sneaking up here to smoke."

Weiss crossed her arms beneath her breasts, tapping her foot angrily as she scowled up at her ... her girlfriend. She could feel the heat rushing to her face just by thinking that word. Which was ridiculous, they had been dating for over a month now, the idea of Blake as her girlfriend shouldn't get that kind of reaction.

Meeting Blake's gaze again, she saw concern and worry as those golden eyes took in the heiress' reddened face. Sighing, Weiss lowered her arms and took one step up the staircase. She didn't want Blake thinking she was angry with her, especially when her reaction was just from some lingering shyness over their relationship.

"Blake, I really don't need my father making my life more difficult," Weiss said. "Especially if he gets a letter from Glynda or Ozpin saying I broke school rules."

"I really don't think Ozpin cares, but if that's how you feel," Blake shrugged. "The plan was to sneak out and talk. And watch the sunset with you."

Weiss couldn't quite kill the smile that slipped across her mouth at the idea of lying on the roof, pressed against Blake's side as they watched the setting sun splash its colors across the sky. It was romantic idea, like several Blake had brought up in the past few weeks. It was something she was only just learning about the cat-eared Faunus – the whole team knew about Blake's special ... collection of 'books' – but she hadn't realized how much of a romantic her girlfriend really was.

"But," Blake continued, watching the swirl of emotions cross over Weiss' face. "If you'd rather go to the room and listen to Yang play video games when she gets back ..."

Weiss' lips dipped into a pout, then relaxed with the idea of listening to the string of whirrs, tings, and combat grunts from whatever new game the blonde was into lately. When she looked back up at Blake, her eyes were determined, her jaw set with stubborn determination.

"How do we open this thing?"

* * *

"That's a good look for you," Winter said, raising her voice so Yang could hear her over the din of the club. Slowly, she ran an appraising eye over Yang's outfit, taking in everything from her boots to amethyst studs set into her ears.

Yang grinned and glanced down at the cream-colored top beneath her cropped black leather jacket. She'd had a feeling her on-the-town clothes would do the trick, especially for an impromptu first ... date? Night out? Whatever. An impromptu first whatever-this-was with Weiss sister.

"You like? It's not as comfortable as my combat gear, but it does the trick."

Winter's only response was a slight smile and another sip of her scotch. With a smirk, Yang busied herself with her own drink, using the bright-red strawberry sunrise as an excuse to keep from talking.

Not that she really needed one. With the sheer noise of the club, they already had to speak up just to hear the other talk. Now that they both had finally claimed a seat at the bar, Yang took the time to look up at the wall of bottles, back-lit with neon lights that sparkled and shone as they mixed with the ever-changing lights of the club. The room was dim, but every few seconds what light there was would change, dying Winter's white hair one color, then another, finally settling on a pale pink hue by the time the older woman turned back to her.

"So," she asked. "Exactly what _has_ Weiss been up to during her stay here?"

"... no offense, but we came all this way to talk about Weiss?" Yang cocked an eyebrow. If Winter had wanted to talk about her sister, they could have gone to a coffee shop, or stayed in the courtyard, somewhere without the pounding beat the DJ seemed so fond of. That would have been much easier – they wouldn't have to half-shout just to make themselves heard – and to be honest, Yang's choice of club wasn't a great place for encouraging polite conversation.

"No," Winter said, in a tone that sounded almost like a laugh. "I thought it would be an easy topic. Something to break the ice."

The older woman signaled the bartender for another drink – she wasn't finished with hers, but she would be by the time the bartender finished her second – and turned on her stool to stare straight into Yang's eyes.

Yang swallowed. Winter's eyes were as sharp and keen as Weiss', in that exact same shade of clear-sky blue. But Yang could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen _that_ look in her teammate's eyes, and it had never been leveled at her. It was always Blake on the receiving end of that smoldering, wanting stare, and always when Weiss thought no one was looking, that no one would notice the sheer _need_ that was as plain as the nose on her face.

But now ... now that azure stare was for her. The hard, burning gaze of someone who saw exactly what they wanted and was very used to getting it. It was intoxicating, and if Yang was being honest, just a little intimidating.

"Unless you would rather talk about you."

"I ..." Yang froze for a second, not quite sure what to say. "Actually, I had a question."

"I am all ears."

 _Yeah, and if that were true, you'd probably be_ less _distracting._ "Weiss said she looked up to you a lot growing up. She's what, five years younger than you?"

"Four," Winter corrected her, and took the glass the bartender slid across the bar to her. "Not the most subtle way I've been asked my age."

 _Caught me._ Yang blushed and went back to her own drink. _That means she's ... twenty-two._ Yang took another sip and ran a few quick numbers through her head. _Twenty-two's not_ that _out there. I mean, twenty-two and eighteen is ... that's doable. So it's not like this is all_ that _weird. Right?_

"You know," Winter said, raising her drink to her lips. Her tone was perfectly proper and polite. The fingers slowly working their way up Yang's arm towards her bicep were less so. A lot less so. "From what Weiss wrote me, I expected you to be a little more ... aggressive."

"Yeah, well, this is a little new for me." Yang swallowed again and tried not to think of anywhere more interesting Winter could put those fingers. "It's not every day I go to a club with my teammate's older sister."

"Hmm." Winter's hum was cold, and just a little disapproving. "Of course, if it makes you uncomfortable, I would be happy to stop."

Yang blinked as Winter's fingers halted halfway up her arm. She didn't pull away, didn't remove the hands exploring the taut muscles beneath the blonde's clothes, just ... stopped. Waiting.

 _Waiting for me,_ Yang realized. Winter was being open, about what she wanted and about where this night was headed. More than that, she was laying her cards on the table. Making it as clear as she could what Yang would be in for, if they took this any further.

 _Well,_ Yang thought, hearing the implicit challenge in Winter's words. _Fair's fair, I guess._ Winter really shouldn't have done that. Yang never had been the kind of girl to back down from a challenge.

One hand landed on the bar as Yang leaned towards the white-haired woman. Their stools were close, side-by-side, giving them little more than a few inches of space between them. Yang crossed that distance in a second, moving until her chin lay alongside Winter's cheek, eyes tracking down from those icy pools to her full, inviting lips that just begged Yang to kiss them.

 _Something for later_ , she decided, and inched past, just barely brushing her lips along the side of Winter's jaw, getting closer and closer until the two women were practically pressed together. Finally, she landed the barest whisper of a kiss against the specialist's neck.

The moment she heard the sharp intake of breath, Yang plucked Winter's drink from her hands. Mouth split in a leering grin, she leaned back and downed the remains in one quick swig, pleased with herself despite the pounding beat of her heat echoing in her ears. She set it back on the bar, then looked up into Winter's face, her own eyes a blazing red.

 _She wants to play,_ Yang thought, refusing to back down as Winter's eyes narrowed into a classic Schnee scowl. _Let's see how she plays with fire._

* * *

"Alright," Weiss said, and leaned back against the wall. "You had a point. It really is beautiful."

The Beacon lawn stretched out in front of them, the grass tinged with reds and yellows as the setting sun dyed the sky a brilliant amber hue. Weiss sat with her back to the wall, her head resting in the crook of Blake's neck.

"It is, isn't it?" Blake said, her voice low, her hand hesitating for a second before it slid down to twine her fingers with Weiss'. "... I'm not sure your sister liked me."

"I doubt she would _like_ anyone I was dating. But she approves of you."

She felt Blake's head move against hers as the Faunus turned to look at her. "You think so?"

"Notice how she didn't try to take me out of school or transfer me to Atlas?" Weiss said dryly. "Winter ... she _would_ like you, if we weren't dating. Since she didn't try to convince me to stop, I think she feels you're good for me."

Blake hummed, the vibration travelling through her chest and down the arm pressed into Weiss' side. "Never expected to hear a Schnee approved of me."

"Winter's the only one who matters." Weiss spoke softly, trying to keep the resentment from her voice. The sunset, and Blake beside her – this was too beautiful to let her anger with her father ruin it. "Winter and my grandparents, but they rarely leave Atlas anymore. Grandfather's health ... he stays in bed most days."

She shivered as a breeze swept by, raising gooseflesh on her skin. The sun was nearly gone, just a thin yellow arc along the horizon, and the air was getting colder every second. "Let's go back inside."

"Please stay." Blake caught her hand as she stood. "I have a better idea."

She tugged on her hand, and Weiss allowed herself to be pulled down into the Faunus' lap. Carefully, Blake shifted her into position, until she was sitting with her back to Blake's chest, her shoulder tucked protectively beneath the taller girl's chin. Strong arms wound around her, holding her in place and wrapping her in Blake's warmth.

"Better?" Blake asked, leaning her head to the side to rest it against Weiss'.

Smiling, Weiss closed her eyes and melted into the embrace. Turning her head to the side, she pressed her lips to Blake's cheek, then snuggled deeper into her arms.

"Always."

* * *

"You might as well take a picture, Yang," Winter said, staring straight ahead as she swirled the scotch in her tumbler. "It'll last longer."

Yang blushed and grinned. _Caught me. Serves me right, she's not a fully-trained huntress for nothing._

"Sorry," Yang shrugged and took a sip of her cocktail. "It's just a pretty complicated uniform. I was trying to figure out how long it takes to put on all those layers."

"Is that really what you were thinking?" Winter met her eyes over the rim of her glass. Despite her straight face, Yang would have sworn she saw humor sparkling in those ice-blue eyes. "From the way you were staring, I am fairly sure what you were thinking about had nothing to do with me putting on _more_ clothes."

"And what if it didn't?" Yang smiled even wider. When she'd accepted Winter's offer for a drink, she never thought it would be this ... competitive. Winter kept catching her off-guard, and Yang wasn't quite sure if she was doing it on purpose. They felt like two large cats, circling each other, waiting to pounce until one saw some kind of weakness. One older and more experienced, caught between challenged and amused by the upstart lioness testing her.

It was a new experience for Yang. One she was starting to discover she enjoyed.

Winter's lips twitched before she spoke. "Then perhaps you should ask the questions you really want to."

"Fine." Yang said, throwing caution to the wind. _Plus, we've danced around each other long enough._ "How long _does_ it take to get all that off?"

Winter slammed back the last of her drink, then laid the glass on the bar. She turned and stepped off her stool, gathering her coat about her as she whispered in Yang's ear.

"Why don't we go find out?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad people seem to have enjoyed the Elderburn. In case you haven't noticed, there's a new version of the cover art - with bit of a sneak peek for the Elderburn in the story. (Dash was nice enough to let me commission her.)


	7. Tranquility

It turned out the answer was two minutes and forty-seven seconds. Not counting the minutes she'd had to wait, interrupted in the middle of unbuttoning Winter's jacket because a grey-haired woman chose that moment to join them in the elevator. It didn't help that Winter refused to make the process easy. Even before the hotel room door closed behind them, roaming fingers traced along Yang's hands and arms, feeling the definition of her muscles before moving down to cup her waist and trace the hard abdominals beneath her clothes.

If Winter had pushed, or shown any sign of looking for dominance or trying to lead, Yang would have fought her tooth and nail. She was ready to dig her heels in and make the white-haired soldier work for every inch of ground she gave. It was what she'd expected when she followed the woman home from the club. A rough night of passion and sparring. Winter couldn't be all that different from her sister, and for all the cold civility Weiss showed to outsiders, Yang knew what she was really like. She knew the kind of stubborn, bickering firecracker Weiss could be, once she actually opened up to you. If Winter was anything like that, Yang was more than ready. She was even looking forward to it.

What she got couldn't have been more different. From the moment Winter's lips touched hers, she carried Yang along like the tide, slow and gentle, so soft that Yang found herself melting into her arms. There was no fight, no duel, no vying for the chance to lead. Just Winter, asking her with touches and kisses pressed against her neck to open up, to relax, to be with her. And Yang did, more easily than she'd ever imagined, until she found herself lifted in the arms of the older woman, hands twining slowly through waves of snow-white hair.

* * *

For once, it wasn't the sound of the shower that woke Yang. It wasn't Weiss snapping open her closet door or Blake trying to sneak one of the books from the shelf without waking anyone. It wasn't even the sun blazing painfully through the curtains after Ruby or Weiss threw them open to start the day.

Instead, Yang opened her eyes to the slow, rhythmic breathing of the woman pressed against her side. Winter was out cold, face buried in Yang's neck to hide from the slow, dim glow working its way through the curtains. Every so often, her breath tickled at Yang's neck.

 _Not a bad way to wake up, honestly,_ Yang thought, lying still against the pillows. _Not a bad way at all._

Turning her face to the side, she laid her cheek against the top of Winter's head and closed her eyes. Honestly, she couldn't remember feeling this well-rested in months. Even so, she had no interest in checking the clock or worming her way out of the warm bed. Winter's room, while not palatial, was more than comfortable. The bed itself was just a hair too big, but with the two of them together, all long limbs and muscled arms, it seemed perfect.

 _Even on a soldier's salary, she has good taste,_ Yang marveled, slowly breathing in the scent of Winter's hair. _I could get used to this._

The thought surprised her less than she supposed it should have. Last night had been great, in more ways than one. Plus, Winter was ... well, she was definitely interesting. Full of stories of travel and combat, of ridding outlying towns from Grimm and other dangers. Yang had no illusions about a potential military career—that kind of discipline held little appeal for her—but much of Winter's career reminded her of why she'd chosen to become a huntress in the first place. A life of adventure, and the ability to do something good with it.

There was the physical side of things, too. Winter was a good height, just tall enough that Yang's mouth could find her neck with ease, but not too tall that she'd get kinks in her neck every time they kissed. Plus, no one could argue the fact that the elder Schnee was drop-dead gorgeous, all long limbs, chiseled jaw, and elegant lines that melted from that icy military exterior into someone far softer. She was definitely a fighter, corded muscles tensing and flexing against Yang's side as she moved every so often. But the woman she'd seen when they first met—back straight, eyes narrow, not one hair out of place in her military bun—was a far cry from the woman hiding her face in Yang's neck, long waves of white flowing gracefully down her naked back.

On the other hand ... this _was_ Weiss' sister. A nice, memorable one-night stand was one thing, but if this happened again, or became a frequent habit whenever the elder Schnee was in town ... Yang did _not_ want to explain that to the heiress.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Winter stirring until the taller woman kissed her neck, sending tingles down her spine.

"Hello, Yang," Winter said languidly, long lashes flicking as she blinked and covered a yawn.

"...g-g'morning," the blonde stammered, trying to ignore the images that flashed through her mind the second Winter said her name. She'd said it plenty of times the night before, and even with her voice muffled by sleep, there was a softness to it that sent warmth surging up to Yang's cheeks. "You uh, sleep okay?"

"Like a rock," Winter hummed and stretched, one arm reached out across the sheets before she pushed herself up off the bed. It was an interesting sight, the sheets sliding down to pool in Winter's lap, white tresses cascading down her shoulder, only slightly mussed from sleep and their antics the night before. They were just unruly enough to make the sight far more sensual that it should be, reminding Yang of each and every moment from the night before, made so much worse when Winter blinked and met Yang's eyes.

Yang found herself frozen in place as Winter leaned in. She didn't lunge or rush, moving with a leisurely grace, one arm sliding beneath Yang's as her lips found the younger woman's. It was barely a kiss, just the brief brush of another mouth on hers, a gentle question Yang couldn't help but answer. Without thinking, her body moved the barest inch it needed to press up against the woman lying atop her. Lavender eyes fluttered shut as Yang drank in her scent and the taste of her lips. A hand found her cheek, caressing it softly before a thumb came to rest against Yang's bottom lip, holding her still as Winter kissed the side of her mouth.

Even when Winter broke the kiss, she didn't pull away, staying pressed against Yang, thumb stroking the line of her lip until the younger woman finally opened her eyes. She found sky-blue pools staring down at her, a warmth there that put the silenced any of the icy comparisons Yang might have made.

"How about I ring up some room service?" she asked, her voice just barely husky. "After that night, breakfast in bed seems in order."

 _Yup,_ Yang decided as Winter pulled herself from the covers and reached for a robe. If Winter was up for it, if Yang got the chance ... she was _definitely_ aiming for a repeat performance. Yang took in the sight of her, still nude, rising from the bed, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she watched the fluffy white robe settle over her shoulders. From the knowing look Winter shot her over her shoulder, it seemed like she was just as up for an encore as Yang was. Which meant Weiss was gonna _kill_ her.

 _Still,_ she smiled while the white-haired soldier turned on the coffee pot and reached for the phone. _Pretty sure it'll be worth it._

* * *

It was early afternoon by the time Weiss found herself beneath the oak tree by the lake. The sun was bright, dappling the ground with shadows as it filtered through the leafy canopy above her. It was an idyllic Saturday afternoon with little to do, and somehow it still managed to be utter torture.

Leaning back, Weiss rested her head against the trunk and tried to think about the bark against her skin, about the leaves waving in the wind, about the grass against the palm of her hand. About anything, really, other than the girl reading quietly at her side.

Blake was lying on the grass, turning the pages of her book while the summer wind gave them a brief respite from the heat. Her head rested against Weiss' thigh, using the heiress as her pillow while she worked her way through a tome thick enough to bludgeon a beowolf with.

Weiss didn't mind that - seeing Blake relaxed like this was a nice change. But every so often, when the wind blew just right, Blake's ears would twitch, reacting to the changing air. And every time, Weiss' hands would itch to pass over those tufted tips.

Not that she would do it. She was tempted, definitely tempted, but there was no way in hell she would make that particular faux pas, not with how new this relationship of theirs was. She knew how sensitive Blake was about her ears. Hell, she was practically sitting on her hands to keep from scratching those adorable ears.

Blake blinked and looked up from her book, her eyes meeting Weiss' before the heiress could look away. There was a pause, and then a long sigh as the Faunus set her book down on her chest and took Weiss' hand in hers. She pulled them forward, coaxing Weiss to stop fighting her, and laid it atop her head.

Weiss swallowed and met those gorgeous golden eyes. "I didn't want to ... you're alright with this?"

"You wouldn't want Jaune running his hands through your hair, would you?" Blake asked quietly, the smirk at the corner of her mouth saying she already knew the answer, even without the shudder than ran down Weiss' spine. "But you wouldn't mind if it was me."

"No," she said, blushing at how quick the answer had come. She rather liked the idea, actually. "Of course not."

Blake smiled and went back to her book. "Just don't scratch too hard."

* * *

"You want me to ...what?" Pyrrha cocked her head, brows furrowing as she stared at the younger girl. Ruby stood in the hall, hands clasped before her, one foot nervously scuffing the floor.

"Sorry, Ruby, I didn't get that last part."

The smaller huntress-in-training took a breath, then let it out, trying to suppress some of her nervous energy. For the life of her, Pyrrha didn't see what there was to be so anxious about – they were friends, and she had never really thought of herself as intimidating.

Biting her lip for a second, Ruby summoned her courage and looked up to face the taller Mistrallan. She looked so ... not intimidated, not quite. Embarrassed, perhaps? She was blushing a little, fiddling awkwardly with her hands while she tried to decide what to do with them.

"Will you goonahuntwithme?" she finally blurted out, half the words slurring together in one quick rush of air. At least this time she spoke just slowly enough that Pyrrha could make out most of it.

 _Ah,_ she sighed as realization dawned on her. _She's nervous_ because _it's me. My record, my reputation – she just feels uneasy about asking for advice. Combat tips, maybe. Or maybe she just wants to train with someone different._

"Of course, Ruby." Pyrrha smiled and left the doorway, moving back into the room to grab her combat gear. It _was_ a nice day, and their workload from Port's class wasn't _that_ heavy. A bit of fresh air would do her good. "Shall we go get the others?

"N-no, I was thinking ..." Ruby mumbled, trailed off, then cleared her throat. "Just the two of us? If it's okay? Call it a ... cross-team cooperation exercise."

Pyrrha laughed and slung her shield up and over her shoulder. Whatever Ruby wanted to ask her, or learn from her, it must be something she didn't want the others to know. Maybe ways to counter a stronger opponent, like Yang. Or ways to handle someone with evasive skills.

 _No need to embarrass her,_ she thought, heading for the door. _Whatever is on her mind, I'm sure she'll ask it eventually._

"That sounds fine, Ruby." Pyrrha grinned, giving her weapons one last pat before closing the door behind her. "All set?"

"Mm hmm." Ruby nodded, her cheeks still just a little red. "After you."


	8. Poetics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby asks Weiss for some help with her crush, Pyrrha gets an unexpected delivery, and Yang learns the value of literature.

It is amazing how quiet a room can be when you are the only one in it. There's always the little noises—walls creaking, clocks ticking, curtains rustling as the slow, calm breeze blew in from outside—and if you really stop to think about it, almost nowhere is really all that quiet. But compare it to the normal cacophony of shouts, shots, explosions, the occasional barking, and the general sounds of four young woman living in the same space, and right then, the room seemed as silent as the grave.

Just the way she liked it.

Closing her eyes, Weiss let the stillness wash over her, then reached for her notes. Her essay was already more than halfway done, and with everyone gone, she couldn't think of a better time to finish it. Yang was finishing up the last of her work in the library, getting it out of the way so she could party later that night without the threat of Port's assignment looming over her. Blake had stepped out to grab something from the library herself, and Ruby was off on another one of her solo practice hunts. With any luck, everyone would be busy and gone just long enough for her to-

The door slammed open with a mighty crash, leaving Weiss to wonder if she'd jinxed herself, and summoned up the forces of chaos by merely hoping for a few, blessed moments of quiet.

"Hey, Blake! Thanks for..." Ruby trailed off, having stampeded her way through the door and found the room empty except for Weiss, seated at her desk, eyes closed in defeated resignation.

"Oh. Sorry," she said, wincing as her eyes flicked to the pile of notes and reference books in front of Weiss. "Blake said she'd meet me here."

"She went to grab something from the library," Weiss snapped, turning back to her notes. It was a small hope, but maybe if she made it clear she was busy, Ruby would head off to find Blake. That would keep her occupied, and by the time she found her and could think about coming back, Weiss might at least have a head start on her paper.

Braced for the sound of the door slamming back shut, she leaned over her notes, eyes running over the neat tidy script that filled her books. She was so focused, that it took her a moment to realize she hadn't actually heard the door slam. Or shut at all. In fact, she realized, as she looked up from her desk, she hadn't heard Ruby so much as a peep.

Glancing back over her shoulder, Weiss turned to stare at Ruby. The girl was still standing there, eyes locked on Blake's bookshelf, teeth gnawing at her bottom lip while one knee bounced unconsciously. She couldn't stand still—which was normal for Ruby, but still, there was something about the way she stood that screamed 'nerves.'

"Is something wrong?" Weiss asked, laying her pen down. Sadly, teammate duties trumped homework, nearly all the time. "You look worked up."

Starting, Ruby twitched, corner of her lips still caught between her teeth. Quickly, she shook her head, jaw tensing as she answered. "N-no. It's ... it's fine. I should probably-"

"Ruby, whatever you wanted to ask Blake, if it is this important, I am sure I can help." Weiss sighed and gestured toward her bed. "I _am_ your partner. Sit." The dark-haired girl hesitated, glanced back at the massive collection that took up most of the shelf space on the other side of the room, then obediently sat down on the edge of Weiss' bed.

Sighing, Weiss turned to face her, crossing her legs and smoothing her skirt in a bid to buy time. This was hardly her favorite part of being on a team, but it was a necessary one. Also, she was quite sure the criteria for being an excellent partner included—nay, _required_ —meddling and poking your nose in whenever your partner was obviously in distress. From the way Ruby could hardly sit still, and kept glancing from Blake's books to the door, Weiss guessed she was a few steps past distress and just a couple shy of hysterical. Any longer, and she might have started tearing at her hair or, more likely, started disassembling and reassembling Crescent Rose on the middle of the carpet.

"Alright," she said, using the most imperious tone she could muster. "Spill it. Preferably before you give yourself a heart attack or explode all over my bedspread."

Ruby winced and slumped forward, the strain of not vibrating on the bed slowly replaced by a forlorn slump in the girl's shoulders. "There's ... there's this girl I like," Ruby started, tongue tripping over her words as she forced them out. "I-I wanted to ask Blake for some advice on ... you know. Being romantic." Letting out a breath, she deflated a bit more, legs kicking absently above the floor. "Blake reads a lot of romance books, and I know you two are doing well, so I figured she'd have some ideas."

"Have you asked Yang for advice?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, glum. "She said I should just bite the bullet and ask her out."

Weiss huffed under her breath. That certainly sounded like Yang – straightforward, honest, and far too blunt. "To be fair, she is probably right. Better to tell her how you feel and get it off your chest than to let it sit and fester. If she doesn't feel the same way, it will hurt less if you just get it over with."

"I know, it's just ..." Ruby's arms came up as she hunted for the right word, gesturing helplessly into the air. "She ... I get nervous, _really_ nervous, around her. I keep thinking I'm gonna say something bad or embarrassing, and then I-I can't think straight. I thought maybe ..."

"Maybe what?"

"I dunno. Maybe a poem would work? Something I can _read_. That I can't mess up?"

 _Oh, I'm quite sure you could find a way,_ Weiss thought, managing to hold her tongue. Overall, this did make quite a bit of sense. If Ruby's 'solo hunts' had actually been her trying to figure out how to ask this girl out, it would explain why she hadn't been coming back looking like she'd spent hours in the forest. Weiss assumed that she had been hitting the showers first, but knowing Ruby, she should _still_ be finding twigs or leaves in her hair.

"You're lucky it was me here, not Blake." Weiss uncrossed her legs and reached for one of the heavier books on her shelf. "She prefers prose."

"So ... you'll help?" A hopeful whine slipped into Ruby's voice as she looked up, looking just the way Zwei did when he was aiming to get a treat. "You know what I should use?"

"Well, it depends." Weis grabbed a second book from her shelf, laying it beside the first one before flipping to the index. "The point is to show whoever this is exactly how she makes you feel. If I just _give_ you something, it _might_ work, but it won't be right for you. If you really want to read poetry for her, it needs to be something you choose. Something that tells this girl the depth of your feeling for her. The kind of passion she stirs in you, the reasons why you care for her."

"Okaaay..." Ruby said, nodding in a way that made Weiss doubt she really understood. Biting her lip, Ruby shifted on the bed, then glanced up to meet Weiss' eyes. "Well, you and Blake are together. What would you use for Blake?"

"That is ... a little personal."

"Sorry." Ruby blew out her breath in one long puff. For a moment, she was quiet, lost in thought. Then, without warning, she jerked back upright, eyes bright as she looked at Weiss. "How 'bout Yang, then? Like, if you were trying to pick something for her?"

"Your crush is like Yang?"

"What? No. Not ... not really. Just thought maybe it'd give me an idea."

"Alright," Weiss frowned. She'd never thought about Yang and poetry before. Never had a reason to. Frankly, the blonde didn't really seem the type—and Weiss wasn't sure she had the patience for anything longer than a few lines. Then again, this _was_ more of a thought experiment than anything else. Ruby wanted an example, and she had given her someone they both knew quite well.

The trick, she decided, drumming her fingers on the desk, was to imagine _why_ someone would fall for Yang. Which wasn't all that difficult. Outside of her good looks, Yang had a kind of relaxed charm that put most people at ease. Even she had noticed the effect the blonde had on her, at least when they weren't bickering. It was Yang who had convinced her to play board games with the rest of the team. Yang who planned the dance with her, Yang who always had a quiet eye on the rest of the team, even if she didn't make much of it.

"Yang is ... active. Energetic," she said, speaking slowly. "She's the kind to keep someone on their toes, pull them along with her."

"That's a good thing?"

"For someone who wants that? Absolutely." Weiss tapped her fingers on the desk one more time, running through a list of potentials in her head. "Yang's kind, gentle with the people she cares about, but she gets bored. There's always a new thing to explore, a new game. She's the type to try almost anything once, the kind of person who adds spice to life, makes it an adventure."

There. That was it. While Ruby watched, brow furrowed in confusion, Weiss reached for the first book she pulled down, finding the index before quickly flipping through the pages. She was fairly sure she knew which act the passage was in, but it had been a long time she she'd read that particular play.

Finally, she found it. "Here," she said, pointing to the line. Propping the book up on her lap, she cleared her throat, and began to read aloud.

 _Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale_  
_Her infinite variety. Other women cloy_  
 _The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry_  
 _Where most she satisfies;_

Weiss set the book down and looked back up at Ruby. "Probably best to stop there. Cut the section about vile things and her being 'riggish'. But you get the point—it is close enough to someone like Yang to work, and does a fairly decent job of expressing why you would feel that way about her. The more excitement or adventure she brings, this person finds themselves wanting more." Holding the brick-sized book out to Ruby, she smiled ruefully. "Also, the Bard is always a good starting place. If a bit of an obvious choice."

Reaching out, Ruby took the book with all the eagerness of someone being handed a live snake. Setting it down on the bedspread, she looked over the passage, eyes flicking back and forth as she read.

"What is she like?" Weiss asked, after Ruby had been quiet for a while.

"Huh?"

"The girl you have a crush on." The heiress rolled her eyes and tapped her book on the bed. "If you can give me an idea of what she's like, I can suggest a few things. At the very least, it might give you some ideas."

Ruby pulled back from the heavy book on the bed, cheeks turning pink as she glanced down at the floor. "I don't know where to start."

"When did you fall for her?"

"When I saw her fight," Ruby answered, almost without thinking. "She's good, really good, and I've never seen anyone our age move like that. Like ... like they knew exactly where they needed to be, right when they needed to be there. Not too fast, no wasted motion, no panic, no nerves. Just precise, trained technique."

Weiss sighed, bemused and mildly surprised she hadn't expected this. _Of course_ Ruby's first big crush at Beacon would be based on combat performance. "Anything else?"

"... she's really kind. Helped me when I first got here. Friendly to everyone, looks out for people." A frown passed over her face as she paused, lingering in the crease of her brow. "I think she's a little lonely though. Maybe I'm wrong, but sometimes, when I'm looking at her, I catch her watching you and Blake, or another couple, and she always has this look ... I can't describe it."

"Longing."

"Yeah, I guess. It always makes me a little sad when I can tell she's feeling ... isolated."

The heiress nodded slowly, watching the girl sitting on her bed, fingers fiddling in her lap. It was obvious Ruby didn't want to simply tell her who this girl was. She had danced around the issue long enough to make that perfectly clear, although if she was 'their' age, there weren't all that many candidates.

"Can I make a suggestion?"

Ruby looked up at her, grey eyes wide with gratitude. "Please."

"Try these." Reaching up into her shelf, Weiss pulled one last book free, running her fingers over the cover before handing it carefully to Ruby. It was an older book, one of the ones she had borrowed from the family library before she left. If she was right about Ruby's crush ... well, either way, from the sheer amount of time Weiss had spent flipping through its well-worn pages, it seemed like the best option.

"They're from part of Mistral, an island in the northern section. The originals are in the local dialect, but they're translated into common as well."

Ruby blinked, momentarily caught off-guard and too surprised to hide the sudden interest in her eyes. With an obvious effort, she schooled her features and took the book from Weiss, fingers tracing the leather-backed spine.

"Please be careful with that," Weiss said softly. "It was my mother's, before she gave it to me."

"I will." Ruby looked up and nodded with a solemnity the heiress had rarely seen from the younger girl. "Thanks, Weiss." With that, the red-cloaked girl stood and made her way out the door, book held tightly under one arm.

"You know," Weiss called softly, once Ruby's footsteps had faded down the hall. "You _could_ have helped."

Silent as the night, a black-haired figure slipped into the room, bow twitching atop her head. Smiling, Blake closed the door behind her, then went to sit on Weiss' bed. "Looked like you had it under control. And I _do_ prefer prose."

"You heard that."

"I heard a lot of things." Golden eyes flashed with amusement as Blake leaned to the side, moving until Weiss couldn't help seeing her. "So, what _would_ you use for me? If you had to pick something?"

Swallowing, Weiss gripped her pencil tighter. "What makes you think I had something in mind?"

"... Weiss, never let Yang convince you to play poker."

Scowling, Weiss snapped her book shut and turned to glare at the Faunus girl. "Please. I can fake a smile with the best of them."

"For people who don't know you or don't care? Maybe." Blake sighed, then reached out fold her hand over Weiss's. "You can do a pretty convincing Ice Queen routine. But once someone gets to know you, babe, you're an open book."

Weiss opened her mouth, something appropriately pithy on her tongue, then stopped when she saw the look on Blake's face. It wasn't a criticism, she realized. It would have been, had it come from her father, or any of her uncles—another comment on how she wasn't quite fit to be the Schnee heiress. But to be honest, she didn't really mind the idea of Blake being able to read her.

"So," Blake continued, when it was obvious Weiss wasn't about to bite her head off. "What poem did you have in mind for me?"

"... you aren't going to let up until I say it, are you?"

"Would you?"

Letting her breath out in a short huff, Weiss turned to face her girlfriend. It was a mistake. Almond-shaped eyes stared back at her, the angles set off even more by the dark eyeshadow Blake favored, that made her already bright eyes glow from beneath darkened brows. Swallowing, Weiss forced herself to calm, then spoke.

 _She walks in beauty, like the night_ _  
_ _Of cloudless climes and starry skies  
_ _And all that's best of dark and bright_ _  
_ _Meet in her aspect and her eyes;_ _  
_ _Thus mellowed to that tender light  
_ _Which heaven to gaudy day denies_

 _One shade the more, one ray the less,_ _  
_ _Had half impaired the nameless grace_

" _Which waves in every raven tress, / Or softly lightens o'er her face_." Blake finished, a smile teasing the corner of her mouth. "Yang gets Cleopatra, you give me Byron's cousin?"

"I thought it suited you."

"It does." Blake smiled, a slanted smirk that made Weiss' heart skip a beat. In a smooth, practiced motion, she leaned in, one hand cupping the back of Weiss' neck as she kissed the heiress long and deep.

"It's a very good choice. Especially since I _like_ Byron."

* * *

"Ooooohhh Py-yrhaaaa! Guess what arrived for yooooouuu."

Raising an eyebrow at the sing-song voice coming from their room, Pyrrha wandered through the doorway. "What is it?"

"I said guess!" Nora grinned, sighing as Pyrrha shrugged helplessly. "...fine. Somebody left some flowers for you!

Glancing over at her desk, Pyrrha saw she was right. Next to her books sat a thick bouquet of wildflowers, a mix of blooms surrounding a clump of wild roses, thorns and all, tied together with a simple white string.

"Did they say who from?" Pyrrha asked, reached for the flowers. They smelled lovely. And fresh—they couldn't have been picked any earlier than that morning.

Nora just shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't see who it was when I answered the door, and I don't read northern Mistrallan."

Now _that_ was odd. As far as Pyrrha knew, there weren't any other northern Mistrallan students in Beacon. Most students from her old school had gone on to study in Mistral itself. Outside of Ren, Nora, and Yatsuhashi, there weren't many Mistralan students in Beacon in general, and even fewer from her portion of the continent.

Frowning, trying to think of who possibly could be leaving flowers for her, Pyrrha reached for the note. Her eyes found Mistrallan script carefully scribed across the card, written in an unsure hand.

 _That man seems equal to the gods_ _  
_ _for he sits across from you_ _  
_ _and hears you nearby_ _  
_ _speaking sweetly_

 _and laughing lovely, which_ _  
_ _makes my heart flutter in my chest;_ _  
_ _for when I look upon you,_ _  
_ _no words are left to me_

 _It is as if my tongue is broken_ _  
_ _and subtle fire runs over my skin,_ _  
_ _I can see nothing with my eyes,_ _  
_ _and buzzing fills my ears_

 _Cold sweat comes over me,_ _  
_ _trembling seizes me all over,_ _  
_ _I am greener than grass, and_ _  
_ _I feel like I might die._

_but everything must be dared_

"So?" Nora asked, bouncing as she peered over Pyrrha's shoulder. "Does it say who it's from?"

"No." Pyrrha smiled as she looked back down at the roses, a sneaking suspicion forming in her mind. "But I think I have a pretty good idea."

* * *

"What _are_ you reading?" a familiar, imperious voice asked over the din of the club.

Yang looked up from her book and grinned at the white-haired woman standing over her. Snapping it closed, she set it aside and slid Winter's drink across the table. "Got bored waiting for you. Ruby and Weiss were talking poetry today, so I borrowed one of the books Blake had."

Winter hummed and slid into the seat across from the blonde. "Who did you pick?"

"Dickinson." Yang said dryly. "Blake likes her, I guess, but I'm not seeing why. Then again, the only poetry I've ever really liked was Elliot, and that's just 'cause of his 'Triumph of Bullshit'."

"I can definitely see that," a soft chuckle spilled out as Winter flipped open the book, eyes scanning down one page after another. "I think you would prefer Shakespeare, honestly."

"Ya think?"

"Yang, even his _tragedies_ are filled with sex jokes and wordplay to keep the audience entertained."

"A master class on puns," Yang bit the inside of her lip, then nodded twice. "I could go for that."

Winter laughed again, a quiet sound Yang realized she wanted to hear again. "Happy to hear it," she said, lips twisted in a small smile as she reached for her glass.

"Okaaay," Yang said, eyes narrowing in challenge as she knocked back the last of her drink. "Let's go. Best Shakespeare line. Somethin' guaranteed to steal my heart and sweep me off my feet."

"For you?" Winter's mouth split in a wolf's grin, hearing the dare and plainly ready to rise to it. Tipping the cocktail glass back, she took a short sip and set it aside, before shifting forward until Yang's face was barely an inch from her own. Ice-blue eyes gazed into deep pools of lavender, solid and steady as they held Yang transfixed in place.

" _To tell thee plain,_ " Winter said, her voice low and husky, eyes never once leaving Yang's. " _I aim to lie with thee_."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're fairly well-known poems, but the first one is from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The second is Lord Byron's, and the one from Ruby to Pyrrha is Sappho's 31st Fragment. Winter's reference is Henry VI.


	9. Reveals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weiss has an unwelcome realization, and Ruby works up the courage to talk to Pyrrha.

Weiss was the only one in the room when Yang came back, knocking the door open in what was apparently becoming a tradition for the two sisters. At least Yang hadn't come back looking for someone else. The blonde was still breathing heavily after her workout, and from the sweat stains on her hoodie and the grass stains on her pants, she'd gone for a run and flopped down by the lake after her normal routine.

Which was odd. Not that Yang was working out—in many ways, she was the most fitness-focused member of the team. Yang was always the one to push Ruby into more conditioning sessions, to keep track of how often the group ran drills, and keep an eye on the other three to make sure none of them were over-doing it. But the more Weiss thought about it, the more it seemed like her routine had increased over the last few weeks. There were more mornings Yang had come back drenched in sweat and dived into the shower. More evenings runs and combat drills. More sessions slamming her fists into the punching bag.

 _Which means something is bothering her_ , Weiss mused while Yang stripped off her sweatshirt and flung it into the laundry hamper.  _S_ _he only exercises this much when she's taking her mind off something else._

Trying to figure out what had her teammate so worked up, Weiss frowned and watched as Yang grabbed her shampoo and started rummaging around for a towel. Clad in sweats and an undershirt, she had the look of someone who'd worked themselves down to the bone, and frankly enjoyed every minute of it. Her face was flushed, but her expression had that relaxed look it always got after Yang worked out. Even her neck was—

"Is that lipstick on your neck?" Weiss asked, seeing the red mark near her shoulder.

Yang froze, her eyes going wide as she reached up to rub at her neck. Weiss watched as the blonde touched the mark, blinked, then coughed as she gathered her things. "Just a rash," she said, her calm tone at odds with the spots of red rising in her cheeks. Towel in-hand, Yang walked to the bathroom, her movements just a hair stiffer than they had been a moment ago. Then she turned, and the door closed behind her with a click.

Weiss watched her go, one eyebrow cocked. That was ... strange. Normally Yang was happy to dish about her dates. One night, they'd see her dressed to the nines, disappearing out the door to make it into town in time, only to come back barely before midnight. The next day, either she'd talk about how well it went, or just unload on the few occasions a date went poorly. Never anything too salacious, but Weiss had never seen Yang ashamed or awkward about her love life.

 _Then again,_  Weiss shrugged, turning back to her scroll. _I would be ashamed too, if I was in public with a hickey._

She was halfway down the news article on her screen when something beeped. Used to hearing the others' scrolls, she ignored it, turning her attention back to the impact of new mining techniques on the safety of the various dust mines speckled across Atlas and the other nations. If she was going to change the way her family's company did things...

It beeped again. A mild annoyance, but one that promised to grow if she didn't silence whoever had left their scroll on. Setting her own scroll aside, she levered herself off her bed, eyes scanning the desks and beds for whoever had left theirs behind. Finally, she spotted it—Yang's scroll sat by the end of her bed.

Sighing, Weiss swung her legs off the bed and went to go retrieve the little thing. It was face down, half-on, half-off the carpet where it must have fallen out of Yang's sweatshirt pocket when she stripped it off. Even as she moved, it beeped again, a short, attention-grabbing ting. Comments about certain people's carelessness issuing from under her breath, Weiss went over to put it in silent mode. Yang had a habit of leaving the volume up. If she didn't silence the blasted thing, the beeping was bound to drive her nuts.

She didn't mean to look at the text on the lock screen when she picked it up. She definitely didn't mean to read it—it  _was_  Yang's scroll after all. Weiss had no intention of invading her privacy. But it slipped from her fingers when she straightened up, and only a quick lunge kept it from crashing back to the floor. Only now she had a perfect look at the brightly-lit screen, not to mention the flirty picture of a blue-eyed woman smiling into the camera, a bedsheet pulled up to her shoulders. Then she saw the name, flashing beneath the picture, and her heart stopped.

* * *

Letting out her breath in one long sigh, Yang peered at the mark on her neck in the bathroom mirror. Glaring peevishly at the little red mark, she pulled her scarf up a little higher, making sure it covered up the bite mark Winter had left only a few days before.

 _That_  had been an interesting evening, starting as a surprisingly sad goodbye before Winter headed back to Atlas, and turning into a demonstration of exactly how much both of them were looking forward to her next leave. Or 'liberty,' or whatever she'd called it. To be fair, the first bite had been Yang's, and she  _had_ said she didn't mind having Winter leave a mark or two, but still ...

The  _last_ thing she wanted was Weiss seeing evidence of their time together.

Taking another breath, Yang splashed cold water from the sink on her face, then flicked off the bathroom fan. This whole thing had gone on way too long for her liking. When Winter had come onto her the first time, she'd expected the two of them would have one quick night of fun, made just a little illicit by it being Weiss' sister she was taking out on the town. But then one night at the club had turned into two, then three, then mornings spent in Winter's hotel room on weekends Yang could afford to be away from school.

And now, now that Winter was rotating back to Atlas ... Yang didn't want her to leave.

Growling under her breath, Yang reached for her scroll, and found it missing.  _Great,_ she thought, then thumped her head against the wall. Checking her scroll for the hundredth time, hoping for a message she had no reason to think was going to come ... she needed to stop thinking about this. These exact thoughts were the reason she had dragged her sorry ass out of bed to run the campus trails until her sides ached. She couldn't afford another mind-clearing run this soon—not with the workload she had due the next day.

It wasn't even like she and Winter were seriously seeing each other. They'd just had a few fun nights together. ...okay. A few  _very_  fun nights. And mornings.  _Not that that means_ anything _. Winter hasn't said anything about wanting more. Or even if she's looking for more than a fun time. It's_ stupid _to spend this much time thinking about someone who's not even going to be around. The next time she'll actually get time off won't be for another couple months. If I'm lucky._

And yet, she was still reaching for her scroll, wondering if Winter had messaged her yet.

"Hey, have you seen my ..." she started as she opened the door, then froze, glancing from a very pale Weiss to her scroll, now sitting in the middle of the room where it had tumbled from numb, trembling fingers, the message from Winter still flashing insistently on the screen. A short, unimportant comment that would have made her smile, flashing under a picture of the older Schnee. A picture taken while she was smiling over at Yang across the bed, bare shoulders beneath the sheets only too obvious.

"Oh," Yang said as the bottom fell out of her stomach. Of  _all_  the ways for Weiss to find out, of all the ways it  _could_ have happened ... Next to Weiss literally stumbling in on her and Winter together, this was probably the worst.

"Yang," Weiss said, her voice shaking. "Explain.  _Now_."

"Well, um," the blonde run her hands through her hair.  _This wouldn't have happened if I just put Winter's number under a different name._ Any _other name. Used_ any  _other picture._ "A couple weeks ago, Winter and I kinda ... went out to a club?"

Weiss' glare could have cut stone. "Y-you went out. With my  _sister_ ," she repeated, her expression somewhere between appalled, betrayed, and horrified. "My  _sister_?"

"Wasn't planned. It just sort of ... happened?" Yang said, forcing a feeble attempt at humor. "I mean,  _you're_  dating my partner."

"That is not  _remotely_  the same, and you know it, you—you ..." Weiss trailed off. Apparently, she couldn't think of a word abhorrent enough to describe what she had just seen. "What is wrong with you? How could you just ... that is so... agggh!"

With a shudder, Weiss headed for the bathroom, slamming the door behind her as if there wasn't enough bleach in the world to get that image out of her mind.

"Well, if it makes it any better," Yang called, picking her phone up off the ground. " _S_ _he's_  the one who hit on  _me_."

From the sudden pitch to Weiss' screams, Yang didn't think it did.

* * *

"I will never unsee that," Weiss said with a shudder, her body revolting as her mind tried desperately to scrub the image from Yang's phone out of her mind. The idea of  _Yang—_ of all people—in bed with her  _sister_ , was just so wrong. Her partner's sister, her  _teammate_ , dating Winter, doing gods-knew-what wherever that photo had been taken ... it had been enough to make her want to scream. And she had—several times from the relative safety of their bathroom, before coming out and practically chasing Yang out of the room with an irate tirade so loud Ren had called Blake to find out what was wrong.

"Never. It will haunt my nightmares until my dying breath."

"You're being a  _little_  dramatic," Blake said softly, reaching over and running a comforting hand up and down Weiss' back. To be fair, she didn't have siblings, and it wasn't like she coud relate to whatever Weiss was going through, but on the other hand... "They're both old enough to know what they're doing, Weiss. They're adults."

"She's my  _sister,_  Blake. And Yang has a picture of her  _..._ like _that._ " Another shudder ran down the heiress' spine. "Why? Why in hell would she use  _that_  as her contact photo?"

"Honestly, it sounds fairly tame. She  _did_  say Winter suggested she take the picture. And it doesn't seem like they've been seeing each other long. Might be the only one she has of her."

"That doesn't help!" Weiss growled. Sighing, she slumped forward, staying still while Blake rubbed her back. As bad as everything else felt, the slow back and forth of Blake's hand was having the intended effect. Closing her eyes, she let out a long, low groan. "When I said I wanted my sister to come to town more often, that I wanted us to be closer, this is  _not_ what I had in mind."

Blake gave her a wry smile. "Yang  _was_  pretty specific about Winter initiating things. I don't think she would have hit on your sister unless Winter showed an interest first."

Weiss' only response was a non-committal huff. But it didn't seem like she was up to arguing the point, and considering how stubborn Weiss could be, Blake took that as good thing. Shaking her head, Blake leaned over and pulled Weiss into her arms, not stopping until the smaller girl was nestled comfortably against her.

"I know it's weird. But it's not like Winter's never dated anyone before. It's not anything that surprising. The only problem is that it's Yang—someone you know." Blake spoke softly, eyes falling shut as she felt some of the tension bleed from Weiss' shoulders. "Honestly, I think they'd be good together."

"You  _what_?"

Refusing to let up, Blake kept going, ignoring the sudden stiffness in her girlfriend's shoulders. "Winter's a responsible sort of person. And Yang needs that sometimes. You and I both know she's the team mom, how she half-raised Ruby herself. I'd still be running myself ragged if she hadn't talked me out of it, and she was half the reason I worked up the courage to tell you how I felt. It has to be good for Yang to have someone to take care of her for a change. And if it wasn't Yang, if you didn't know her, I think you'd be thrilled Winter found someone she enjoyed spending time with."

"Plus," Blake murmured Weiss slowly started to relax. "She  _did_  apologize."

Weiss took a long, slow breath, then blew it out. "... I suppose you might be right," she admitted, her tone making it very clear the admission was a grudging one at best.

"So," Blake leaned forward, laying her chin on the smaller girl's shoulder. "Do you think maybe it's time to unfreeze the door?"

* * *

"What was all that commotion about this morning?" Pyrrha asked as Ruby sat down at the breakfast table, tray laden with waffles half-drowned in maple syrup. "All we could make out was Weiss ranting at Yang. Something about her scroll ..."

"Oh, they're fine." Ruby said quickly, hoping against hope that if she said it often enough it might actually happen.

Pyrrha didn't seem to be the only one curious about what had happened. More than a few people around the cafeteria kept giving glances over at Yang, whispering amongst themselves whenever the blonde didn't seem to be looking their way. Fortunately, it didn't sound like anyone had actually heard what started the fight—from what Ruby had heard on her way to breakfast, all anyone knew was that Weiss had thrown Yang out that morning. Ruby knew what had happened, but only because Yang had caught up with her as she was headed back to the room. One quick explanation of why their door was iced shut, and Ruby had turned around and followed her sister to the breakfast line. No reason to try to get back inside while Blake was trying to get Weiss to calm down.

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked, eyebrows creased in a worried frown. "Whatever it was, Weiss seemed pretty upset."

Ruby shrugged. From what Yang had said, she understood why Weiss was mad. She didn't know how she'd feel if the tables were turned and she found out Weiss was dating Yang ... no, that was a bad example. Weiss and Yang were teammates. They knew each other, and Ruby  _knew_  they knew each other. Probably wouldn't have been any different than when she found out Weiss and Blake were dating. No, a real comparison needed more distance. It'd be like ... it'd be like Ms. Goodwitch dating uncle Qrow...

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha's soft voice asked from across the table. "You look sick."

"I-I'm fine," Ruby shook her head. Okay, maaaybe Weiss had a reason to be a bit weirded out by the whole thing. "It'll be okay. Blake's talking to Weiss, and Yang didn't really do anything wrong. They'll work it out."

Pyrrha gave her a questioning look, the shook her head. "I hope so. It can't be easy to have your teammates fighting."

"You mean JNPR never fights?"

Pyrrha laughed and smiled at Ruby over her breakfast, oblivious to the way Ruby's stomach starting somersaulting at the sound. "Ren's not really the type. Jaune grew up with enough siblings that the three of us actually make for less stress than he's used to, and I don't think anyone would fight with Nora if she asked them. There's the occasional bickering, but I can't remember the last time any of us really  _fought._ "

"Can't hurt that you're there," Ruby mumbled around a mouthful of cereal.

"What do you mean?"

"Just..." she swallowed. "You're always so calm. And cheery. I mean, Nora's chipper too, but you always seem really  _relaxed_. Nice." Ruby frowned, wracking her brain to think of anytime she could have described Pyrrha as anything other than 'nice.' "I can't really imagine someone fighting with you over ... anything."

Pyrrha went quiet as she looked across the table, the smile slowly draining from her face. "That's not always a good thing, Ruby," she said, quiet enough that only the two of them could hear. "If I have one regret, it's that I'm ...  _reluctant_  to say how I really feel sometimes. It's easier. But that means there are times where I want something, or feel a certain way, and I don't feel like I should speak up."

She smiled—a small, sad smile as she looked across at the younger girl. "Sometimes I wish I was more like you, or Yang. More willing to go after what I wanted."

Ruby couldn't help but swallow, her throat bobbing as a slow, sick feeling slipped into her gut.  _That_  was how Pyrrha saw her? After she'd spent the last couple months dancing around the idea that she liked the redheaded huntress who lived across the hall. After she'd left the flowers at JNPR's door like a coward, the moment she heard Nora unlocking the door. After ...

"Pyrrha," Ruby said, her heart pounding a double-time tango against her chest. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Ruby," the red-haired huntress said, that same warm smile spreading across her lips. "Anything you need."

 _Just say it,_ a part of her shouted, silent in the back of her mind.  _Just say it, and it'll all be over. One way or another. For Pete's sake, just open your mouth and_ tell _her._

"Would you... I mean. I've wanted to—" Ruby's voice caught as she tried to talk. She opened her mouth again, and only air came, out, her throat tight with nerves and fear. Heat rushed to her face and she looked down at the table, a sick feeling spreading through her as she felt tears welling at the corners of her eyes. Gods this was humiliating. Pyrrha was  _right there_  and she couldn't even string two words together.

A warm hand laid itself atop hers, and for a moment, Ruby swore her pulse stopped. "Ruby," Pyrrha said, her voice calm and comforting. "Whatever's bothering you, it's alright. There's no need to be nervous."

 _Liar,_ the voice in the back of her head said.  _Yeah right, there's nothing to be nervous about. Not with you sitting over there, looking_ perfect _, touching—_

"Pyrrha," Ruby's voice broke slightly as she forced herself to speak, before she found herself trapped there, unable to do anything more than wallow in her panic.

"Will ... will you go out with me?"


	10. Acceptance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby gets her answer, and talks to Yang about what happened with Weiss and Winter.

Even in the busy cafeteria, surrounded by scores of their classmates, Ruby heard absolutely nothing as she stared at the redhead across from her. Silence filled her ears, a panicked dread that pulsed through her like a living thing, running down her veins to settle around her heart. It squeezed and contracted as the fear ran through her, turning her insides to knots.

What if Pyrrha said no? The older girl's hand was still on hers. She hadn't recoiled, hadn't pulled away in disgust or anger. That had to be a good sign. Right?  _Unless it's just shock. Unless she's completely surprised and has no idea how to tell me no._

Gods, what if Pyrrha said no? What if she wasn't interested in other girls, or if she already had someone else she liked? Ruby had seen the way she'd looked at Jaune their first few months at Beacon, but when he started crushing on Weiss, it looked like Pyrrha had lost interest. _What if she didn't? What if this weirds her out and she never talks to me again?_

Something tightened around her hand, and Ruby's heart stopped. She looked down. It was Pyrrha's hand, still on hers, squeezing a fraction tighter. That didn't make sense. Was Pyrrha angry with her? That had to be it, the whole white-knuckled fingers-tightening reaction. Pyrrha was trying to keep her temper under control.

Her heart sank, leaving her filled with an emptiness that gnawed at the inside of her chest. Why couldn't she have just kept her mouth shut? This would have all—

Something touched the base of her chin, making her flinch. She wanted to pull back, pull away, and found she couldn't move, trapped by the hand holding hers atop the table. Soft, constant pressure pulled her gaze back up to the redhead across from her, forcing her to look at the woman that right then she feared more than anything.

Gentle eyes as green as grass stared back at her, kind beneath their sculpted brows, perfect enough to have been carved from marble. Her lips moved and Ruby's eyes darted to them, unable to look away. It was obvious why someone had chosen Pyrrha to be their model, why they had picked her to be the focus of their marketing campaign. Someone that beautiful...

"... Ruby?"

The younger girl came to with a start. Pyrrha was watching her, a concerned look on her face as she cocked her head to the side. Shaking her head, Ruby pulled away from the hand still on her chin.

"I-" she started, her voice cracking. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to. I just—" Her voice failed. She needed to get away, to hide, to run back to her room, pull the blankets over her head, and just curl into a ball and forget the world existed.

She tried to stand, her arm jerking as she tried to pull from Pyrrha's grip. She couldn't. The Mistrali girl didn't let go, too angry or surprised to let her leave that easily.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Ruby croaked, eyes stinging and trying her best to ignore it. "Yeah, I just ... I need to go."

"Oh." Pyrrha blinked. Her eyebrows creased, just a little, as she looked up at the shorter girl. "O-okay? I guess I'll see you later?"

Pyrrha let go, and in an instant, Ruby found herself away from the table. It took everything she had in her to keep from running for the exit, to bolt before anyone had a chance to see the humiliation plastered all over her face. She mumbled something in the affirmative, and turned, forcing herself to walk at a measured pace towards the double doors.

"Ruby, wait."

Her feet stopped. Ruby told them to move, yelled it in her mind, her entire being screaming at the need to just be  _gone_. They didn't listen, stuck to the ground as surely as if she'd stepped in drying cement. By the time she got them moving again, Pyrrha came up alongside her, looking down as she tried to get her attention.

"I'm free this weekend, if you are."

What?

Pyrrha blinked, her eyebrows arching as she looked down at her. Had she said that out loud? Ruby wasn't sure. She couldn't remember, couldn't think, couldn't focus on anything other than that ache settling deep down into her bones.

"Our date?" Pyrrha said, gently, legs moving in two long strides that took her around in front of Ruby as they walked out through the doors and onto the school commons. "I don't know what you had in mind, but I'm free this weekend if you want to do something. Next weekend should be okay, too, if you're busy."

... what?

"I..." Ruby stammered, tongue tying itself in knots. "I didn't ... you want to go with me?"

"Yes?" Pyrrha said, her head turning slightly to the side, eyes narrowing as if she was trying to figure out some deeper meaning to the question. She looked ... confused, oddly comforting as Ruby stared back in complete disbelief.

"You want to go out with me." Ruby heard the words come from her mouth, but they didn't make sense. Individually, she knew what they meant, each word fell into place in her mind, but somehow ...

Pyrrha nodded, that confused look still on her face as she reached out and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Yes, I do."

"On a date. With me."

"Yes?" Pyrrha's voice pitched up at the end there, her smile starting to fade. "That's what I said ... are you feeling alright? You look a little green."

"No. No, just ..."  _Just trying to figure out if I'm dreaming._   _Or dead and damned, and this is my water-always-slipped from your grasp torture._ "Uh, this weekend sounds ... fine. Yeah. How's Saturday for you?"

A shy, cautious smile spread over the older girl's lips, making Ruby's insides do somersaults as another wave of awe and terror crashed into her. "Saturday sounds great."

"... okay then." Ruby nodded and had no idea why. "I will ... message you. When I know what we're doing."

"Okay." the older girl laughed, her hand coming down off Ruby's shoulder. For a moment, the two of them just stood there, Ruby still half-in-shock, Pyrrha looking at her with a strange expression on her face, mouth curled in a half-smile that kept tugging at the corner of her mouth. "So ... I guess I'll see you in class?"

"Class. Right. Yup." Ruby nodded again, giving Pyrrha a quick smile as the redhead turned and headed back into the dining hall.

Unmoving, she watched as the door swung back shut, cutting off the trickle of voices through the door. In an instant, she was alone on the school grounds, one solitary figure in the morning quiet while everyone else dragged themselves out of bed and slowly made their way to showers and breakfasts and the usual, plodding crawl of a weekday before class.

Swallowing, Ruby took a breath. And then another. And another.

Pyrrha said yes.

She had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. There couldn't be any other explanation for what had just happened. She hadn't needed to convince her, or tell her how she felt about her, or admit that she was the one who left the flowers. Pyrrha just ... said 'yes'. It was too easy, too simple, too...

Pyrrha said yes.

Pyrrha said  _yes_. Ruby hadn't really thought about what would happen if she said  _yes_. That meant ... they were  _dating_.Or going out. Or whatever you wanted to call it. Unless it didn't count until after the first date. Did you have to have a couple dates before it really meant you were dating? Was it like the annual thing where it had to happen twice before you could use the word? Would Pyrrha even say they were dating, or would she not want to use labels too soon, or —

 _Oh, no,_ she thought, as a her stomach dropped again.  _She said yes. And I have no idea where to take her._

Slowly, her body moving without her telling it to, Ruby turned and wandered her way back towards her dorm room, mind racing all the while.

* * *

Contrary to what Yang told her and the murmurs she half-heard on the way back to her room, the door was not frozen solid into a block of ice. There were no spikes threatening to gore any student who walked by. No ship-destroying iceberg blocked the stairwell up to her floor. Even the door knob seemed fine when Ruby reached for it, if a little chilly.

Swinging it open, she found their room the way she left it that morning. Blake's weekly pile of library books sat at her bedside. Weiss' neat pile of school supplies sat perfectly arranged on her desk. Her own homework still splayed out across her bed, pages crumpled as they met her blankets. There were no signs of the knock-down drag-out fight she'd been led to expect.

Convinced that the room wasn't suddenly about to explode, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. A sense of safety settled in around her, wrapping around her shoulders like her favorite cloak as she moved into the calm, empty room. More on instinct that anything, she meandered her way to the large red beanbag sitting in the corner by her bed, and let her legs collapse, pitching herself directly into the soft red fabric.

She did it.

She actually did it.

Relief at having finally asked mixed with the joy of knowing Pyrrha had said yes, terror from the knowledge that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing, and the anxiety that she had under a week before she needed to have a date planned for the two of them. A date. A real date. With her and Pyrrha and ...  _I am so, so screwed._

Something clicked, and Ruby looked up in time to see the door to their bathroom swing open as Yang stepped out, still in the middle of running a wide-bristled brush through her hair.

"Oh. Hey sis," Yang said, smiling over at her, free hand holding her hair in place, then smoothing the strands after the brush passed through them.

"... hey." Ruby tried, and failed, to sound chipper. She managed neutral, probably the best she could expect with how she drained she felt. Like she'd just taken on half their year in Glynda's combat drills one after another. "Didn't see you leave breakfast."

"Blake texted me once she calmed Weiss down. She kinda kicked me out before I had a chance to finish getting ready."

Ruby nodded, still numb. "So, is Weiss okay?"

"She had a ... bad first reaction." Yang sighed and sat down on the edge of Blake's bed. "She's gonna get breakfast with Blake. Cool off a bit. We agreed to ...  _chat_  about it during lunch." Reaching over, she set her brush down on her desk, then grabbed for her uniform ribbon. Reaching back, she started tying it around her neck, and shot Ruby a curious look. "How are you doing with all this? You look pale. You eat enough?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Ruby lied, and from the look on Yang's face, not too convincingly either. "So ... you and Winter, huh?"

"Yup." Yang smiled ruefully as she settled the ribbon into place. "Me and Ice Queen Senior."

"Isn't she a little ... old for you?" Ruby asked, staring up at her sister from the beanbag, trying to remember what Winter looked like the last time she visited Weiss. She and Ruby hadn't talked much, barring a brief introduction from Weiss, but Winter had to be quite a bit older than her sister. That, or she'd inherited every single tall gene her parents had.  _Or both._

"She's only four years older than Weiss." Yang gave Ruby a shrug that was just a little too casual, exactly the way she always did when she tried to seem indifferent about something. Ruby had seen it often enough when they were growing up: the first time Yang talked to their dad about getting a bike; the day she'd shown Ruby and Qrow the gauntlets she'd designed at Signal; after the first time she brought a date home. "Twenty-two and eighteen ... I mean it's not  _that_  bad, right?"

Ruby shrugged back. "I mean, her being older isn't a problem? For you, I mean?"

"It's ... look. Right now, Ruby, we're just having fun. She's busy with the military and I'm training to be a huntress." Fluffing her hair one last time, Yang let it settle around her shoulders, a slight frown curling her lips. "I'll message her in a couple days, maybe try video calls when she has access to CCT. When she can come back to Vale ... well, we'll see what happens."

"And you're sure Weiss is okay with this?" Ruby's eyebrows raised. Considering the way Weiss hero-worshipped her sister, she wouldn't have thought Weiss would be all that 'relaxed' about Winter dating one of her teammates.  _But if_ Weiss  _is okay with it, then maybe Yang ..._

"I ... wouldn't call it 'okay'," the brawler grimaced. "She's ... I dunno how she really feels about it. She did the whole disgust-and-horror act at first, but she did eventually unfreeze the door." A diabolic smile spread across Yang's lips. "Maybe she's  _warming up_  to the idea."

Ruby groaned, rolling her eyes while her sister laughed. "Does Dad know?"

"Ha." Yang laughed, mirthlessly. "I'm not bringing that up unless ... look, if I end up  _seriously_  dating someone, I'll tell him. But Winter and me hitting up a club together isn't the kind of thing I write home about. Plus, think about how Uncle Qrow'd react if he heard I spent the night with a Schnee."

That ... Yang had a point. Once he'd heard who their teammate was, Qrow hadn't exactly been  _quiet_  about his dislike for the Schnee Dust Company, or the 'corrupt sack-of-crap family' that ran the place.

"Yang if ..." Ruby paused, trailing off as she kicked her legs, staring at the floor of their dorm room. "If I wanted to date someone, someone older ... that would be okay too, right?"

"So, you're finally gonna talk to me about 'em?" Yang asked, and grinned as Ruby's head snapped up to stare at her. Patting the edge of Blake's bed, she nodded to the spot beside her. "I have eyes, sis. I knew something was up and you didn't want to talk about it. So, how much older?"

Pushing herself up off the beanbag, Ruby made her way over to the bed and slumped down beside her sister. "Just ... someone in our year."

"... if it's anyone from team CRDL, I'll have Dad ground you until you're twenty."

Ruby shuddered. "Eww, no. And I'm pretty sure their team name is said like 'Cardinal'."

"'Curdle' fits them better." Sighing, Yang flopped back down on the bed, blond hair fanning out behind her. "Well, you don't seem to have brain damage from combat practice. That's a good sign. It's not Neptune, right?"

Ruby tried to imagine  _anyone_ seriously dating Team SSSN's resident flirt, and failed. "Uh, no."

"Good. Coco?"

Ruby supposed that  _technically_  was a closer guess. "I said  _our_ year. No."

"... is it Jaune?"

"NO. Yang, come on!"

Grinning, the blonde reached over and gave her sister's shoulder a playful shove. "Yeah Ruby, two years for you should be okay. As long as they're good to you. You gonna tell me who it is?"

"I—" Ruby stammered and stopped. There was a part of her that hadn't actually expected Yang to be okay with it. Apparently, this was a day for surprises, and Ruby kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I'm not ... we haven't exactly ..."

With a roll of her eyes, Yang reached over and tugged her little sister close, wrapping her arms around her. "It's okay, sis. I won't pry. Just promise you'll tell me when you're ready."

For a moment, Ruby forgot she was a huntress-in-training, and sixteen. All she felt was that sheer weight of everything on her mind just stop as Yang wrapped her arms around her. For a moment, she was that kid on Patch again, relived to be back in the middle of one of those hugs that always seemed to make everything a little bit better. Leaning into her sister, Ruby thudded her head down onto Yang's shoulder and squeezed her back. She hadn't realized how much Yang's approval would mean to her, how much she'd worried about how Yang would take the idea of her dating.

"... thanks, Yang."

"No problem. I'm just glad you told me." A hand came up to the back of her head, and stroked slowly down her hair. Ruby's eyes fell shut, and for a long moment, they just sat there, Ruby buried in Yang's shoulder as her sister held her.

Finally, when everything seemed a little bit  _less,_ Ruby shifted, and Yang pulled away. She was smiling, her eyes sparkling as she rubbed Ruby's shoulder one last time. Then she smiled, and leaned forward to make sure Ruby met her gaze.

"Just know, if they try anything, I'm breaking all their fingers."

"Yaaaang ..."

"Nope. Non-negotioable. It's my job. Big sister rules," the blond smiled toothily and patted Ruby on the head. "I mean, if Blake messed with Weiss, how long do you think it'd take Winter to classify her as a domestic terrorist? Pretty sure she already has Jaune on Atlas' No-Fly list."

"... you're joking, right?"

"Only a little, sis." Yang grinned. "We're big sisters. It's what we do."

**Author's Note:**

> If you can, please take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.
> 
> So you know, most of these are coming from prompts submitted to my tumblr. If you'd like to see the drabbles before they get compiled, or select your own prompts, please go check it out at [redsuitwriter.tumblr.com](redsuitwriter.tumblr.com/search/writing+prompt).


End file.
